Prophecy's Ruin
by Agent Perry the Platypus
Summary: Minato ignored his duty to his family. Sarutobi ignored his duty to his people. Jiraiya ignored his duty to his Prophecy. A young boy is forced to deal with their folly, and in his suffering become a God. The tragedy of a life is not caused by one single act, but the neglect of a thousand. Naruto/Kurenai.
1. Prologue: A Summons to the Sage

Prophecy's Ruin: Prologue

* * *

"Fukasaku-sama…Oogama Sennin is calling for you…"

The ancient Gama elder frowned as he peeked out of his toadstool and saw the towering bulk of a messenger toad seated outside his home. Upon the wandering slopes of Mount Myoboku where the Gama Clan made it's home, it was rare that anyone received formal summons, especially from the Oogama Sennin himself, and Fukasaku was worried that this might be a prank of some kind. It was not beyond that young rapscallion Gamabunta to make him hop all the way up the mountain side to the central temple just to be hit in the face with some disgusting concoction. He was very sad to say, that something along those lines happened not a few times in the past, as evidenced by his rather severe aversions to orange paint and dung beetle pie.

Sighing heavily, he slowly got to his feet, a few pops and creeks finding their way out of his old joints, and shuffled over to the open window so he could confirm that it was indeed a true summons.

"Eh?" the old toad sage said, squinting in the light of the hot morning sun, "Todoma...is that you?"

The large yellow toad messenger, relatively young by the long lived standards of the Gamma clan, shifted uncomfortably under the gaze of the miniscule sage, his bulk causing the earth around the large toadstool to shake and tremble. Fukasaku hoped he wouldn't upset the foundations of his toadstool, otherwise he would never hear the end of it from Shima.

"Er...Yes, Fukasaku-sama," the giant toad stammered out, the young messenger toad clearly ill at ease with the job of bothering the ancient sage, "Forgive me for calling upon you so early, but it was an emergency. This morning Oogama Sennin woke from his meditation and called for both his advisers to attend him. He seemed peculiarly serious when he called this morning."

That last admission, piqued Fukasaku's attention.

"Oogama Sennin...serious?" he asked with obvious disbelief.

Todoma, shrugged, looking as lost as Fukasaku was at the moment, "Yes, Fukasaku-sama. Oogama Sennin looked most serious when he woke. Had I not been his messenger for all these years, I would have though him...angry."

_Angry...?_ He thought to himself in utter disbelief. He thought of the large dotty old sage that taught generations of young Gama soldiers the sage arts and never in his eight hundred years living on Mount Myoboku or his time spent as Oogama Sennin's aide did he ever even hear of him being angry at anything.

"Are you sure Todoma-kun?" Fukasaku asked, still in disbelief, "was Oogama Sennin actually angry?"

Once again, the mammoth messenger toad shrugged, his expression a mix between looking lost and in utter disbelief, "At least that's the impression that I had."  
Fukasaku blew out a breath, overwhelmed by the supposition. Toddling back into the house, he quickly grabbed his bag and shrugged on a traveling robe before poking his head out of the room once again, "Did you inform Shima of Oogama Sennin's orders, Todoma-kun?"

Todoma nodded, "Of course Fukasaku-sama. Shima-baa was informed a while ago by another messenger. She should be at Oogama Sennin's side already."

The old sage rolled his eyes as a reflex. If Shima, his cranky old bag of a wife, was already at the temple, he would get an earful for not being "prompt" with his summons and his "lack of respect" for the senile old sage. The woman was a terror even when they were young tadpoles growing in the old lands on the far side of Myoboku. Even as a young woman, she tormented him daily during their sage training, not to mention all the times she forced him into embarrassing situations, many of them planned by the wily old bat herself. Despite all the headache and irritation the woman caused, Shima eventually grew on him and, despite being nearly three hundred at the time and Myoboku's foremost bachelor, Fukasaku eventually settled down with Shima. He honestly didn't mind at that point, both Fukasaku and Shima had been through a lot during the various inter clan wars that wracked Myoboku, not to mention the first Shinobi wars after the time of the Sage of the Six Paths forged bonds between the human world and the world of the summon beasts. He was tired of the constant fighting and wanted to enjoy the peace. Shima had been his constant companion during those wars and was practically the only woman who understood why such a celebrated warrior such as Fukasaku would want to retire in peace, as such they made a perfect match, not counting the occasional spats and the frequent headaches the old windbag induced.

"Alright..." Fukasaku said, grumbling under his breath as he quickly exited the home, his heavy cloak around his shoulders flapping in the light breeze and his walking cane tucked under his arm, "let's get going Todoma...we might as well get on with it since Ma's already going to kill me for being so late..."

The big messenger toad chuckled uncomfortably as Fukasaku continued to grumble, even as he clamored up the his back. Settling slightly above the nape of Todoma's neck, Fukasaku secured himself to the thick bumpy dry skin and clicked his cane on one of the large protuberances atop Todoma's head, indicating his readiness. With a mighty leap the two of them were off, covering leagues with each chakra powered bound.

Scenery flashed by as Todoma made his way up the winding path of Myoboku's central mountain, pools of glistening blue water swishing in their wide pools in the wake of Todoma's bulk, giant toadstools, the homes of other Gama clansmen, quaked as the weight of the jumps pressed the earth and shook their foundations, and animals of all sorts, those large insects that fed the Gama clan and the non-sentient animals that the Toads shared their mountain with, scattered as Todoma traveled.

Myoboku truly was a paradise, Fukasaku thought to himself, the large bracing jumps bothering the old sage not one bit.

"So what do you think this is about Fukasaku-sama?" Todoma asked during one of his bigger jumps.

The old sage frowned, his silence answering the young messenger toad.

What did Oogama Sennin want with him, Fukasaku thought to himself, the cool air of Myoboku clearing his head and allowing him to think clearer. These days, it wasn't often that Oogama Sennin woke from his mediations. The last time he woke was a year before the disaster in Konoha where young Minato was killed and Bunta was forced to assist the fool boy in creating a Jinchuriki. Before that was nearly three decades after his previous awakening, when young Jiraiya was given his prophecy. No one knew how old Oogama Sennin was, he was ancient when Fukasaku was born, but what all of Myoboku did know, was that when Oogama Sennin did wake, there were no good tidings to be had.

Could it be the boy, he thought to himself as they neared the giant steps leading up the last stretch of the mountain. It would be nice to hear something of the poor child his clan was forced into helping seal, Naruto, he remembered the boy's name was, he thought it was something like that. Young Jiraiya was always talking about this or that on the few visits he paid the Gama clan on return to Myoboku, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember a single time the boy mentioned young Naruto. It may have seemed a little suspicious, but Fukasaku knew Jiraiya, the boy would not run from his duty as the little Jinchuriki's Godfather, nor was he one to harbor a irrational hatred of things he knew were not the boy's fault.

The thought comforted him somewhat. Jinchuriki suffered greatly for something that wasn't their fault, in fact, they suffered for doing a great service for their respective countries, keeping a demon at bay or providing a powerful weapon for their respective leaders to wield. Despite this, Jinchuriki were persecuted with irrational hatred, mostly for the common man not understanding the mechanics behind the seal. At least the boy would have someone who understood and protected him in Jiraiya, it was why they accepted the boy and trained him in the first place.

It was that odd prophecy that brought Jiraiya to Myoboku and won him his training as a sage, the first human sage since the dark times before the Sage of the Six Paths used his power to forge bonds between the Shinobi worlds and the summons'. It was an odd prophecy that the dotty old sage decided to spring on them: who the hell foresees someone becoming a pervert? Despite the dubious nature of Oogama Sennin's prophecy, there were some points that, if true, would shake the foundations of both the Shinobi world and the world of the summon animals.

He shook his head and let the dread wash out of him as the colder air of the higher altitudes brushed over him. The prophecy, while not directly influencing his world, would have ramifications if it were not completed in an optimal fashion. destruction of the Shinobi world or their salvation. the later would bring peace, but the former world bring war. War between the shinobi clans would draw the summons back into direct conflict with each other, which would begin those ancient wars all over again. he was too old to fight and hundreds of years of peace on Myoboku would see the end of their people should war touch them once again. It had to be stopped one way or another.

But he had faith in Jiraiya. Despite the boy's buffoonish nature and his rather inconvenient personal habits, he a good and powerful shinobi, a man who would be an ideal leader if he would stop blaming himself for the tragedies of others.

Lost in thought, Fukasaku hardly realized that their journey was completed and that Todoma, his bulk rising up and down as he fought with his exertion, was waiting for him to get off.

"Oh?" Fukasaku said, scratching his chin and looking around, "are we hear already?"

Todoma rolled his eyes, "Yes Fukasaku-sama, I've been waiting for the better part of five minutes for you to realize that..."

Fukasaku chuckled as he hopped off Todoma's back, "Alright young Gama... that's enough of that," he said, berating the younger toad for his backtalk.

Todoma, shuffling uncomfortably under the gaze of the old toad, gave him a watery smile before waving goodbye and jumping off to another one of his duties.

"Youth these days," Fukasaku grumbled as he made his way up the wide stair and into the temple that housed Oogama Sennin's quarters.

As he walked, Fukasaku could hear the wet gurgle of water streams flowing from the ancient spring under the temple, his feet slapped noisily against the smooth river stone floor as he made his way through the empty halls and high columned ceilings of the ancient temple. The temple of the sages was the most holy place on Myoboku. It was even situated higher than the clan homes and the capital building where the council of Gama elders made policy on Myoboku. Like Oogama Sennin, no one knew how old the building was, it having been here since the toads could remember, and since Oogama Sennin was so absent minded, no one could get a straight answer from the dotty old sage.

Finally leaving the great outer expanses of the temple, he found himself in the large chamber that made up Oogama Sennin's private mediation rooms. Here, large basins of spring water lay on either side of the huge dais where the great bulk of Oogama Sennin lay.

"Oya Oya!" came the thin strangled familiar voice of the old sage, "Young Fukasaku eh? What brings you here?"

Fukasaku sighed as he looked up into the wrinkled face of his master. Oogama Sennin had not aged well, he thought to himself. Swaths of wrinkled toad skin were layered over a massive bulk. The old dotty sage had to be the largest toad in existence at that point, greater than even the current leader Gamabunta himself. That in itself was one of the oddities that made up the mystery of Oogama Sennin. Usually, members of the Gama clan grew to enormous sizes, nine or ten stories tall in many cases, then, once they hit their peak at two hundred years or so, they began to shrink down to the usual diminutive size that he currently occupied. It was odd according to the natural world, but it had to do with the expansion and compression of their chakra and the use of natural energy as they aged. For the life of himself, Fukasaku could not explain it, and, he thought with an unkind scoff, neither could their scholars, despite the techno babble they loved to spout out whenever asked on the matter. But as it was, Oogama continued to grow, despite being the most powerful of the Gama sages.

"Oogama Sennin-sama," Fukasaku said, bowing low, "It was you who summoned me here."  
"Hmmm?" The old sage blinked in confusion, his mammoth chinless jaw scrunched in thought and his wide brow peaked as he thought. "I did?"

"Ha!" came a thin screeching voice from behind Oogama Sennin, "I knew you would be late old man!"

Fukasaku sighed as he tried hard not to roll his eyes at another diminutive form hopping out from the bulk of their master.

"Shima..." Fukasaku said, trying hard to keep the annoyance out of his voice, "I came as soon as I was called..."

Shima scoffed, her purple hair standing out vibrantly from the dull green sheen of her face, "Even late you show such a lack of respect to our master!"

"Oya Oya," Oogama Sennin rumbled, water splashing over the side of his basin as he shifted to sit on his haunches, "Married couples shouldn't fight like this young Shima..." he said, scratching his bottom and stretching slightly, "come apologize to young Fukasaku."

The old Gama crone blew a raspberry, "Ojiji-sama, I think you're going senile in your old age."

"Fah!" Fukasaku said, hopping up onto his dais, "You say I'm disrespectful of the old man, yet here you are calling him senile!"

"I have a right!" Shima said, turning up her nose at Fukasaku, "anyway, why have you called us here Oogama Sennin?" she said, redirecting the conversation back to the matter at hand.

Fukasaku rolled his eyes, "Yes discounting the fact that Shima is completely out of her mind," he chuckled to himself as Shima squawked at him from the other side of their master, "Oogama Sennin, why have you called us here?"

The dotty old sage, frowned, his wide brows drawing close together and his eyes clearing slightly as he lost that old senile look, replaced by a look one could only describe as anger.

Both Fukasaku and Shima shared a look, never in their lives had they seen Oogama Sennin look so serious. Not during the war when the Gama clan killed it's brethren, not during the dark days of the shinobi wars where the clan was forced into battle against the human enemies of their summoners. this was the first time they could think of, when Oogama Sennin was this serious and it scared the hell out of both of them.

"What is it Master," Fukasaku asked, an edge of terror entering his voice. Anything that got Oogama Sennin this worked up had to be bad.

Finally, after a several seconds of terror filled anticipation, the old sage looked up and spoke.

"I think..."

"Yes Master?" Shima asked, she too was waiting in anticipation, a quiver of fear in his voice.

The Oogama Sennin's eyes narrowed, "I believe..."  
"Master?" Fukasaku said, anticipating.

"Yes...I am..." the old sage stated with certainty, "yes it's true..."

"What's true master?" Fukasaku goaded again, his anticipation growing to unbearable heights.

Oogama Sennin nodded and turned to Fukasaku, his eyes wide and serious.

"I'm Constipated..." the old sage said and shifted his bulk.

_** BRRRRRTTT!**_

"Ah...much better," he said, satisfied, the dotty look returning, "I was holding that in for such a long time, thank you!"

Both Fukasaku and Shima were shocked...for a total of five seconds, then Shima began to screech.

"YOU DIRTY OLD FART!" she shouted, "HOW DARE YOU CALL US UP HERE AFTER BEING ASLEEP FOR OVER A DECADE, THEN PROCEED TO SCARE THE CRAP OUT OF US...ONLY TO TELL US YOU WERE CONSTIPATED BEFORE FARTING IN FRONT OF US!? HOW DARE-"

"It's failed..." Oogama's tired voice cut through Shima's rant like a hot knife through butter.

Surprised, Shima stopped mid rant, her mouth hanging open as she contemplated what her master just told them.

"What failed Master?" Fukasaku asked. He was more used to his Master's odd behavior than Shima was, seeing as he was present for the previous two awakenings while Shima was away, yet this was something new. what could have failed, he asked himself as he waited for Oogama Sennin to elaborate.

Oogama Sennin, still with that same senile look on his face, picked at one of the warts on his leg, seeming to forget when he just said a moment ago.

"Master?" Shima asked, trying to get their master to finish up what he was trying to tell them.

Fukasaku frowned, he knew Oogama Sennin would say no more. It would be up to them to find out what it meant. to decipher the mystery of Oogama Sennin's awakening. Hopping down from his dais, Fukasaku began to waddle out.

"Where are you going Old Man?" Shima called to him, still completely confused.

Fukasaku ignored her as he walked out still contemplating Oogama Sennin's revelation.

Oogama Sennin smiled to himself, his old white filmed eyes sad as he sighed heavily.

"It's failed..."

* * *

AN: One of the many stories I've written in my spare time, basically scrapped Demon of the Strong Fist and rewrote it. I'll give ANs to clarify weak points in my story, but generally what you see is what you get. Thanks for reading.


	2. Chapter 01: The Demon's Plight

Chapter 1: The Demon's Plight

* * *

It was a small smelly alley, the one he was currently rummaging around in.

Behind the old traditional Hi no Kuni cuisine restaurant, rotten fish, moldy rice, and the slowly greening spoilt beef mixed with sake congealed on the bottom of the overflowing trash bins that lined the back door of the establishment. He heard the regular customers say that the place used to be in business during the times before the Shodaime raised the ancient black maple forests, when Konohagakure used to be a remote farming town on the long endless grassy planes, rather than the stronghold of the most powerful hidden village within the elemental countries. Currently, he was crouched behind one of the overflowing iron drums, hidden amongst the heavy black trash bags as he waited for the scullery boy to finish dumping the day's leavings.

"Shinji! You great Idiot! Lock that fugu up in the can before you get one of those filthy urchins killed again!" cried the chef as he stuck his head out the back door and yelled at the skinny boy, "You don't want the frickin ANBU here disrupting my business again, do you!?"

The boy jumped and bowed as he opened the heavy locked iron can and dumped the organs and poisonous tissues of the deadly puffer fish they imported from Nami no Kuni into it with a mound of others, "Hai! Sensei!" he cried, and locked the can once again.

He had once tried some of that fugu two years ago, unknowing that it was highly poisonous, but only thinking of how much of the fish they had wasted and how good of a meal it would make for him. He nearly died from the poison before one of the ANBU found him gasping in a cold alley, paralyzed, and purple with hypoxia. The old man was livid and nearly closed down the place, passing another law stating the requirement for keeping such dangerous poisons under lock and key. Of course he recovered quickly, which amazed the doctors at the hospital the old man had forced to care for him.

For as long as he remembered, Naruto Uzumaki had been hated and shunned. Angry glares, disgusted grimaces, sneers, and jeers were the norm for the six year old street urchin, and those were only on good days. Sometimes the villagers would become even more agitated and violent. He'd been hit with rocks, pummeled with fists and feet, stabbed with various utensils, and even poisoned once by people who tricked him into trusting them. His life was nothing but one big rollercoaster of crushed hopes and disappointment with a smattering of physical and mental anguish just for garnish.

Unlike many other boys and girls his age, Naruto didn't have a family. He was an orphan, made parentless on the day of his birth, his father dying in defense of the village and his mother dying in childbirth. Naruto was then placed in the care of a foster family by the Sandaime, who came to visit the poor street urchin on rare days when he would treat him to a bowl of ramen or just to share some time with the dirty faced blonde. From what he learned overhearing conversations around the Hokage tower, Naruto had been shuffled around from foster home to foster home for the first two and a half years of his life, each saying they were unable to care for him due to his 'special needs.'

That really confused him. What special needs? He really didn't see anything all that different from himself and the other children, except for maybe those strange marks on his cheeks that mysteriously vanished over a year ago. Nothing he did was really all that different from the other children, yet he was constantly being singled out by the grownups, beaten from things he didn't do, starved for reasons he had no knowledge about.

His first memories were those of the dark basement of the orphanage, the water pipes dripping on his bedding as he huddled under the water heater for a little warmth. Sometimes, they would lock him in that basement for days at a time without any food or a place to toilet, then, when they decided to let him out, they would beat him for soiling the basement and would make him clean up the mess with his own bare hands, only to lock him in the basement for another few days.

The boy nearly starved to death several times, and would have gone crazy after the first few times the matron of the orphanage beat him almost senseless with that great bamboo rod of hers. Those were the worst days of his life as he was forced to endure the cruel torture he was made to face, the hours after where he would bleed constantly. When he was old enough, he escaped that horrible place, knowing that it was for the best but having nowhere to go or what to do with himself.

Yet, Naruto was not your normal child. For some odd reason, those things that would have destroyed a grown adult, those things that would have made hardened criminals cry themselves to sleep, only made Naruto push himself harder to live, to survive. It was that drive that forced him to live the life of a street rat and not go running to the old man every time something went wrong.

Of course, even after his escape from the orphanage, his life was anything but easy. He'd learned quickly that staying hidden was a valuable asset to have, and how quickness and a sharp mind were often better than a strong arm and a sharp weapon. He learned how to salvage scraps from the waste bins of the old restaurants, how to take clothes from wash lines and trash bins behind the seamstresses' shops, he learned to utilize the maze of large unused pipes beneath the huge village of Konohagakure as both a home and a means of hiding his movements from the villagers, and he even managed to glean a small vocabulary from a few good samaritans who took pitty on the poor street rat.

Naruto smiled as he palmed the small square book at his hip where a small bag sewn of scrap material was tucked between the waist band and the rope he used to hold his over large pants up. The book was his only real possession, "The History of the Fire Shadows, by Senjuu Tsunade", a comprehensive history of Konohagakure and its leaders by the granddaughter of the Shodaime. Though the Sannin Tsunade was a medic-nin by trade, the woman authored a book before she left the village, along with several compendia of medical knowledge. It was his most prized possession, something he picked up two years ago during the one time the woman at the village library hadn't been paying attention and allowed him in. Hours were spent in the back, looking at the pictures on the books and trying to figure out what the pictographs meant, when he discovered the book. Not thinking he pocketed the book, thinking he would put it back later, and picked up a scroll on martial arts. Not understanding how to read, he went up to the desk to ask if they knew anyone that could teach him, and that was when he realized his mistake.

Later that night, when he was crawling back to his hovel after being beaten a fraction from death by a few chunin who responded to the woman's call to 'kill the demon brat', he realized that the book was still in his pocket. It was from that little piece of literature that he learned, or began as it was, to read. At first he could not make heads or tails of the tiny pictographs. All those curved lines, those crossed and swirling figures, gave him a headache, yet he was undaunted by the struggle.

That year, when not dodging angry chunin with sharp pointy weapons, rocks and nasty bodily compounds hurled by village folk, or trying to find another place to sleep when the villagers discovered his 'homes' and burnt them to the ground, he used the skills learned on the streets to sneak up to windows at the school or into the crawl spaces above the rooms and listened in on the classes.

Of course he tried to enroll himself at first, he heard people saying that the school was free to all the children of Konohagakure, and surely he was a 'Child of Konohagakure' right? But that was not meant to be. Once he was spotted, the people simply beat him to a bloody pulp and threw him out the back way and into an alley, where, yet again, he had to pull himself back to his hiding places. Yet he did learn how to read, if not how to write, basic characters and how to make sentences, but his learning was incomplete. He tried to read the book, yet the majority of the characters were unknown to him. That was, until he met Ayame and Teuchi Ichiraku.

The Sandaime came on one of those rare days and took Naruto to dinner. Of course the man shied away from questions about his life, only simple things, like what he did that day, or how he was doing so far. The old leader was a wealth of knowledge. Every time he treated Naruto to dinner, he always taught him something. Nothing too big, nothing too small, but always interesting to Naruto. He would often talk about shinobi life, how ninja lived, missions he went on as a young man, and the basics of becoming a competent shinobi, and Naruto would eat it up, hanging on every word. He especially enjoyed the stories of Yondaime, the strongest of the shinobi Kages, who battled against the Iwa in the last Great War and sacrificed himself for the good of the people. It was stories such as those that made him want to become a ninja, and the old man promised that once he was eight, he would allow him to enroll in the Academy.

To be a Hokage, powerful and valiant like his hero the Fourth, to be loved and respected by everyone like the Third, to have prestige and honor like the Second, and to be revered as a legend like the First, that was his goal. The old man promised he would help him that very day he met the Ichiraku.

Ayame and Teuchi were kind people. They understood the boy and actually appreciated his bubbly sunny personality. When he came by they would give him free ramen, and Ayame even helped him learn to read many of the harder characters in his book, but he hadn't been to Ichiraku in many weeks now. He just didn't have the money. Of course they would give him free ramen, but he knew the Ichiraku were a poor family, and he didn't want to hurt his friendship or pressure them into giving him free food when he couldn't even pay for one bowl. The last time he had any food besides the rotten things he picked up from the garbage was when the old man treated him last, nearly two months ago.

His tummy rumbled slightly and a yanked the belt a little tighter. His hand brushed the small money pouch he had sewn on the inside of his thigh. He smiled at the thought, he'd been saving up the coins he found on the street and the occasional coin an out of town merchant or the supremely rare good samaritan would give him. He almost had enough for a bowl of ramen. Maybe a week more or a few more days if he got lucky, but right now, he needed some dinner. It was two days since he last had anything to eat. The last two days were spent on the run for a few blood thirsty chunin who decided it was good sport to burn him out of the last abandoned apartment building he made his temporary home in.

When the scullery boy turned around after dumping the slop pale into the garbage, Naruto let out a silent sigh of relief, but stifled it, when another presence entered the alleyway.

"Yo! Shinji!" came the voice.

The boy turned around and grinned, "Hey Dai! Long time no see!"

The two men embraced and Naruto's eyes widened in shock. It was one of the chunin who had torched his new home. Damn, he would have to escape somehow or go unnoticed, he thought with a grimace, he wouldn't be eating tonight.

"So how's life as a chunin, buddy?" the scullery boy asked his friend.

The chunin shrugged, "It's okay, I suppose, at least I don't have to hang around those losers anymore. Sweet Kami those idiots were annoying, I'm so glad that stuck up Uchiha was sent on that suicide mission a few days ago."

"You mean Tomoe-chan?" he asked the chunin, "The girl with the big cans?"

The chunin chuckled, "Yeah, that's the one. Came back in a body bag early last night. Serves her right," he scoffed, "Fucking Uchihas and their high and mighty eyes. Wish I could've pulled that bitch's eyes out and shoved it under that fucking Uchiha kid's face."

"Kid?" the civilian boy asked.

The shinobi nodded, "Yeah, some sort of Uchiha prodigy or something. Oh what the hell was his name again…ida…no…itashi?...Itachi! Yeah, that's his name. Kid's only eight and he's a frickin' genin already. Fucking monster if you ask me, those weird Sharingan eyes, he had his nerve to reprimand me, a fucking genin talking down to me, can you believe that!?"

The other boy chuckled, "Yeah, well, if he's as good as they say…anyway what have you been doing lately? You weren't at Mom's for Shinobu's party two days ago. What's up?"

Naruto silently ground his teeth. He knew where the chunin was two nights ago, he was setting fire to his home and trying to skewer him with the Kunai he stole from him. One actually tore through his arm and he absently rubbed the heavily bandaged part, wincing in pain, but keeping silent.

The chunin's face contorted into a feral grin, "Don't spread it around any jonin or ANBU, but," he chuckled, pulling out a brand new Kunai set, "We were able to flush out the demon from that decrepit building he was hiding in."

"No!" he said shocked, then a grin split his face, "I hope you took him apart nice and slow, Dai."

Chuckling the man regaled his friend how he had valiantly snuck up upon the sleeping monster and ambushed him, fought of the demon's attempts and killing him, and wounded him before he could escape. Fuming at the injustice of the whole thing, especially at the loss of those kunai the Sandaime had given him after he showed him how to use it a few years ago, he remembered it quite different.

Naruto remembered setting down to sleep and hearing voices in the middle of the night. The pair chunin simply torched the place and waited for him to come out, then had fun trying to skewer him, nothing valiant about anything he did, Naruto thought to himself as he silently ground his teeth, listening to the overconfident man beef himself up.

"And if it hadn't been for that fool Ishida, I would have that demon's head on my mantle right now," he finished with a sigh.

The other boy patted his friend on the back, "Don't worry about it Dai, you'll get the monster sooner or later, and avenge auntie and uncle."

He nodded, "Yes, once I have that demon's blood on my kunai, I'll finally be able to let father rest."

They chatted a few more minutes, and Naruto had to tighten his rope belt a little tighter to prevent it from growling and giving away his position, but in the end the two boys said their goodbyes and walked away.

He didn't emerge for another ten minutes. He wasn't a fool. He'd been ambushed like this several times and had only gotten away thanks to pure blind luck. Naruto also knew that he should just leave and get back to the safety of the sewers, but the lure of anything to fill the gaping hole in his stomach, and the slop the scullery boy looked so good that he decided to tempt fate.

Silently, he slipped out of the bags of garbage and made his way over to the freshly dumped garbage, uncovering a feast to his eyes. Of course to anyone else it would have been nothing but a pile of slop. Partially consumed chicken bones nasty mixtures of rice, soy, and half eaten platters of food were jumbled together in a congealed mass of food hours old. The pieces of sashimi and old fish parts stank and the raw cuttings of old beef were mixed in, creating a reddish mixture that looked and smelled as if someone had spit copious amounts of saliva into it, something that wasn't too farfetched either. Yet to Naruto, it was a feast, and he gladly began to dig in, consuming the disgusting slop with relish.

Half way through his meal, he felt killing intent wash through the alley.

"Well, well, well," came the familiar taunting voice he remembered from last night, "What do we have here?"

Immediately, he looked up and saw the Chunin from before squatting on the side of the alley wall, looking down and fingering the set of kunai the Hokage had given Naruto.

Naruto backed away, abandoning his meal as he inched away quickly. He had to make it to the street. He knew he would probably be able to lose the chunin in the crowd or maybe signal an ANBU that would be patrolling around the main thoroughfares, but it was a long way off, and the man was a chunin after all.

Dropping down, the man pulled the kunai out of Naruto's pilfered holster, "Well demon, I've got to hand it to you," he said, fiddling with the kunai, "You're pretty resourceful to have eluded me for two whole days. Don't know how you're doing it though," he said, with an evil grin, "Not like it'll matter."

Naruto was, for the first time in his life, faced with complete and utter knowledge that he would die right then. Sure he was resourceful, he was smart, and he had good instincts, but he was up against a chunin, alone in a bare alley, with nothing.

He was going to die.

"I-I…" he stammered out, holding his hands in front of him as if to ward off the man.

The chunin advanced slowly, the smirk widening, "Are you scared demon?" the man licked his lips in anticipation, "You know, my father was scared when you arrived, he begged you to spare his wife, yet you did nothing, killed my mother in front of him, then when he fought, you destroyed him and all the others who fought with him…"

Naruto was scared, the man was nuts, "I-I didn't kill a-any-"

"SILENCE!" he hissed, his eyes becoming glazed with anger and a touch of insanity, "You're attack six years ago cost me my entire family!" he shouted advancing forward, forcing Naruto to move deeper into the darkened alley, "My father died, my mother died, and I was put on to the streets! I had nothing. NOTHING!" raising the kunai, he yelled, "AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT YOU DAMN FOX!"

With that, the kunai plunged deeply into the boy's chest, sheering through lungs, and cutting veins, breaking through bone and sinew, leaving a jagged gushing wound from his shoulder to his sternum.

Naruto cried out, gurgling as blood filled his lungs.

"DIE DEMON! DIE!" the kunai continued to rise and fall, thrusting into his arms, his back his chest, his stomach.

Naruto knew he was dead.

* * *

AN: Thanks for reading.


	3. Chapter 02: The Red Beast

Chapter 02: The Red Beast of Konoha

* * *

Kanga Shoto, The Vengeful Red Beast of the Leaf, was in a melancholy mood.

Five years gone from this village, leaving barely a year after the death of his sensei Itosu Sakon, and for those years traveled the expanse of the elemental countries, even venturing far to the west in search of the fabled barbarian lands where the milky white opals originate. A solitary existence for a man disillusioned by the hate and stupidity of the village he once called home.

Dashing through the trees on the outskirts of Konohagakure, Shoto came within sight of the great painted gates of the village hidden within the leaf, the faces of the four Hokage rising on the mountain side above the sprawling city. It would be a gross understatement to call Konohagakure a village. With close to a hundred and fifty thousand, it was one of the largest cities within the elemental nations, a powerhouse of the shinobi villages, yet because of that, Konoha had become arrogant and self righteous.

Konoha-nin were ignorant for the most part, jumping to conclusions and holding a mob mentality while the corrupt council of civilians and the few noble shinobi families holding them back, pulled the strings. Unlike other shinobi nations, where actual shinobi ruled the village, Konoha was pretty much the opposite. While they still had a Kage and a circle of primary clans on the council, it was the civilians who ruled, not the shinobi for whom the village was founded. The current Hokage was nothing more than a figurehead. Yes he fought against the corruption of the civilian council, yes he tried to be honorable and to do what was right for the village, but he could only do so much.

Sarutobi Hiruzen was old, much too old to be leading the village. When Namikaze Minato, the Fourth, was in power, he quelled the council and brought back what Konoha was before, but at his death at the hands of the Kyuubi, the council once again seized power away from the Sandaime, marginalizing the power of the Shinobi clans' political strength until only a few powerful clans held sway.

It was because of this, that Shoto became disillusioned. Kanga Shoto was once one of only two successors to the Konoha taijutsu sage Sakon Itosu, the man who mastered a hundred taijutsu forms, and the creator of the style of taijutsu known as the Goken, the Strong Fist. Shoto and his sworn brother Maito Gai, were known as the Twins Beasts of Konoha during the last great ninja war, and he served both the Sandaime and Yondaime faithfully with his skill and power. But after the death of the Fourth, a power struggle broke out between one of the civilian clans and his master's clan the Itosu. The Ayukawa, a clan only two decades new to the land of fire, and whom, with their considerable wealth, bought their way onto the civilian council, sought a way to take advantage of the political and economic instability caused by the Kyuubi attack and subsequently the Fourth's death, in order to corner the market on imports from Kusa. Since Itosu's civilian family members were Konoha's major connection to Kusa, the Ayukawa tried to find a way to marginalize them, and they found it through Itosu himself.

Gai and Shoto's master was an hard man. Proud and aggressive, he led his clan with a single minded ferocity that made him legendary and the Itosu clan powerful within the civilian and shinobi ranks. But his one flaw was his anger. His anger knew no limits and it was this that they exploited. The Ayukawa sent one of their people to assault Sakon's daughter, leaving her for dead after kidnapping her from their compound. When Sakon discovered this and had a Yamanaka mind-walk his daughter for the identity of the perpetrator, he was enraged and called the man out in a challenge. He ended up killing the man to regain his family's honor and retribution for his broken daughter.

Though just in his actions by the old code, the council, under the direction of Ayukawa funds and bribes, altered several laws using their power within the village council to do this secretly, making formalized duels illegal. Sakon was charged with murder and was called by the council to be executed, his family holdings liquidated and given to the Ayukawa as payment for their son's death.

That enraged the shinobi on the council, but they could do nothing, so impotent were they that Sakon, their greatest Taijutsu Master, was made to cut his own belly, his family thrown out onto the streets where they were starved out, eventually being forced to leave, seeking refuge in a village somewhere to the south of Hi no Kuni.

Shoto and Gai were on a long term mission then and had no knowledge of their sensei's death. When they returned and realized what happened, the two boys flew into a murderous rampage. Their master, the man whom they thought of as a father, was murdered by the corrupt council of mere civilians. It took the combined power of three ANBU units to contain the Twin Beasts of Konoha, and both he and Gai would have been executed on the spot for their actions had it not been for Sarutobi, who put his foot down and managed to quell the council long enough for them to realize that those two men were the only successors to the Goken, the Leaf's strongest hidden taijutsu style.

Angered by the actions of the council, Shoto decided to leave Konoha for a time. Given permission by the Third, he was placed on the reserves list and allowed to go on a long term mission to reestablish spy networks, something that would take years to do. He asked Gai to come with him, but his ever optimistic friend declined, even though he was loath to stay in the village after what they did to their sensei. Gai always wanted a disciple, to pass on the knowledge of the Goken, the other styles his Sensei had taught them, as well as his 'unique' outlook on life. So far, from the letters he had received from his ever optimistic green spandex loving friend, there was no one to be found, but Gai's 'Fires of Youth' would not be quelled.

Shoto was of a different mind. Konoha lost the will of fire. The Will of Fire, the drive for greatness through work and effort, the desire for honor and righteousness, the purity of personal strength and camaraderie, that was what the Shodaime had instilled in his people, yet the Konohanin of now were nothing of the sort. All one had to do to realize that he was right was to look at the two great clans of Konoha, the Uchihas and the Hyuugas.

The Uchiha were an arrogant and lazy clan. The secret of their success was their ability to copy the hard work of other clans. Ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu, everything was stolen from the other clans of Konoha and used against their owners to establish their dominance. They were pandered to by the council, given everything, even the prestigious charge of leadership within the Military Police, yet they lacked the will of the old Shinobi, the Will of Fire. They were dishonorable thieves, who were more business men than warriors. Money grubbing and power hungry, they used underhanded political tactics and pull to destabilize the economics of other great shinobi houses, pulling them from power. It was also rumored in hushed voices within the shinobi circles, that they were involved with the Kyuubi incident as it was a well known fact amongst even partially informed ninja that the Uchiha's powerful doujutsu the Sharingan was able to control demons.

The other great shinobi family, the Hyuuga, were the opposite of the arrogant pandering Uchiha. Though powerful, thanks to economic ties, they stayed above the petty money grubbing schemes of the Uchiha and focused on their image and prestige. To the Hyuuga, blood purity was everything. The small main house, consisting of no more than a handful of members, were protected by the branch house consisting of over a hundred byakugan wielding Hyuuga. The family was so crazed of blood purity, that they practiced frequent inbreeding between those of first and second cousins, as well as utilizing liberal infanticide in choosing their heirs. It was rumored that through the genetic defects brought about by this liberal practice of inbreeding, the sharingan was born. Suffice to say their arrogance was more than noticeable and a testament to how low the great shinobi clans sunk.

Sighing he alighted on one of the branches, if he hated this village so much, why the hell was he back? That thought plagued him over and over as he watched the lights of the city flicker in the darkness. So much injustice…yet it was still good to be in a familiar place. He grew up here. Though an orphan, he was taken in by Gai's parents when he was six and living on the street. They gave the poor street rat a home and accepted him as one of their own. It would be good to see Auntie and Uncle once again.

Jumping down from the tree branch, he straightened up his gear to make himself presentable. Though his brother enjoyed wearing, he thought with a shudder, green spandex and those hideous orange leg warmers, Shoto was more of a conservative shinobi. Always the utilitarian, Shoto wore a simple mesh shirt as to keep himself unencumbered, thick linen wraps on his arms, and a pair of shinobi pants, secured to his calves by another set of linen wraps. Of course, they were red, he had to keep up with the mystique of the Red Beast of Konoha, but other than his pack, he carried nothing else.

Running his hand through his short spiky hair and slicking his closely trimmed moustache and short pointed black beard down, he made his way to the gates and the guards stationed there.

"HOLD!" came the shout from the first guard chewing, of all things, a senbon.

His dental bills must be astronomical, Shoto thought, as he stopped and set his heavy bag down next to him. As the shinobi with the senbon walked forward, his partner with the scar on his face was further in, several projectiles in his hand, ready to throw at a moment's notice.

"State your business here, stranger," he said, his voice calm, but his hand twitching involuntarily towards his weapons pouch.

Shoto observed the man for a few seconds. Clearly he was a newly raised chunin or something of the sort, a jonin would have either recognized him from the personnel reports or sensed him earlier. He surmised a similar situation about his partner in the back. Both were much too twitchy to be jonin.

Mumbling he muttered, "Damn rookie chunin," getting a frown from the other shinobi as he reached towards his hip pouch.

"I'm not a chunin, stranger," he said with a haughty air, "And you will keep your hands where they are, or I'll have my friend there skewer you with a few sharp pointy metal implements."

Shoto grinned, willing to bait the guard to get a rise out of him, "Then what are you kid? A genin?"

"I'm a tokubetsu Jonin," he replied with a slightly strangled expression.

The older man chuckled, "My, my, my, Jonin eh? How typical of the fucking council…Damn political appointments…" before the boy could retort, Shoto said, "And I'm not reaching for a weapon, kid, I'm looking for my ID and my hitaiate."

Nodding, he allowed Shoto to do such. Pulling out his leaf hitaiate, he tied it around his upper arm and pulled out his ID badge, handing it over to the younger man.

"Says here you're…Jonin…Class A…Kanga Shoto…" his eyes widened as he looked up into Shoto's eyes, then hand wraps, sure enough blood red chakra wraps, "Sweet Kami…the Red Beast…" immediately, he signaled for his friend to stand down and turned back, "I'm sorry sir, please enter!" he said, saluting the other man.

Shoto just rolled his eyes as he took back his ID and picked up his heavy pack.

Jumping easily to the rooftops he made his way to the civilian sector of Konoha. Sure he should have checked in with the old man first, but he had family he didn't see for so long and he knew Auntie Shina would be making dinner right about now.

In no time flat, he found his way to the small home of Shina and Yoshinobu Maito, Gai's parents and the mother and father Shoto never had. They took him in when no one wanted him, they clothed him, fed him, taught him, provided for him, and loved him. It was because of them that he turned out the man he was today, and he would forever be in their debt.

Fixing his spiky black hair, he alighted on the doorstep and knocked on the heavy door of the modest home. A quick shuffle could be heard and a familiar chakra signature was felt behind the door.

"HELLO MY YOUTHFUL VISITOR! HOW-" Gai cut off as he recognized his estranged friend, "SHOTO! MY BROTHER!" he said, grabbing the other man and lifting him off his feet in a bear hug, "MY MOST YOUTHFUL FRIEND! I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU ARE FINALLY BACK IN KONOHA! FINALLY THE TWIN BEASTS WILL RETURN THE WILL OF FIRE TO THIS LAND AND A NEW SPRING TIME OF YOUTH SHALL BLOSSOM IN THE LEAF!"

Shoto, who was used to his brother's over enthusiastic greetings, simply used chakra to deaden his hearing for a time as to prevent permanent hearing loss, and bearded the man's hug. After a few minutes of shouting about youth, he let Shoto down and they walked in, only to be tackled by a crying Maito Shina.

"Oh!" she cried, "now both my boys are home! Finally, after all these years!"

Shoto felt a little guilty he'd put his auntie through all of that. Of course he sent letters as frequently as he could, telling them about his exploits and sending money when he completed a mission, but he had been away for over five years, a very long time for someone to be away and he was glad to be home.

"I'm sorry auntie," he said hugging her, "I'm back, at least for a little while."

She smiled up at him, "All I ask is that you come and check in once in a while, Shoto," she said with a smile, then frowned as she poked his gut, "And maybe eat a little more. You're still a growing boy and you need all the strength you can muster."

He chuckled. At twenty three, he was already an old soldier in the shinobi ranks, but he figured that even if he was fifty, Auntie Shina would still try to fatten him up with the same excuse.

"It's good to be back Auntie," he said, then caught sight of the grinning old man who walked forward and slapped him on the back.

"Welcome home my boy," Maito Yoshinobu said with a wide grin, his thick graying eyebrows so reminiscent of his son's, "It's good to see you once again. Your exploits have reached us even here."

Chuckling, "Don't' worry Uncle Yosh, they're not all true."

Yoshinobu laughed, "I sure hope not. I don't think your auntie could take it if you were put within the ranks of Super Pervert like Lord Jiraiya."

At that, he cringed.

"WHAT!?" Gai yelled, "MY EVER YOUTHFULL BROTHER SHOTO, A SUPER PERVERT! HOW UNYOUTHFULL! I WILL HAVE TO-"

Shoto interrupted him, "Oh come on, Gai. It was a joke by the old pervert. I managed to meet up with him in Kusa where he was trying to peak. Managed to get him caught and he was sour at me, so he tied me up and threw me into the onsen. Honest!"

Rolling her eyes, Shina pulled him into the home, "Alright Shoto, we believe you. Come, we've just sat down to dinner…"

The Maito family and Shoto caught up on current events. He regaled him of stories traveling with the famed Gama-sennin, meeting Hanzo the leader of the Ame-nins, and seeing the barbarian lands to the west and of their strange fighting weapons and customs. In turn, Shina and Yoshinobu told him about the village, the small rumors and gossip, and about various goings on within the family. A few hours later, it was starting to get dark.

Gai accompanied him as they made their way from roof to roof.

"You think the old man is still there?" Shoto asked.

Gai shrugged, "Hokage-sama usually does not leave the tower until late in the night. The council has been giving him much grief lately."

Shoto nodded, "That's what Jiraiya-sama told me when we met up last year. He suspects the Uchiha are on the move again. What do you think?"

The green spandex wearing man frowned, "You already know what I think of the Uchiha Clan my brother."

Chuckling, he replied, "The word 'unyouthful' comes to mind, Gai."

Gai grinned, "Yes, well, it's becoming harder and harder to protect sensei's techniques from them. They keep trying to spy on me while training, hoping to copy the Goken. Already they've bastardized several of sensei's techniques, though they have not figured out how to utilize them without breaking their own bones."

Shoto scoffed, "Typical Uchihas, trying to get power without having to work for it. How have you kept the council off your back?"

Scowling, his friend replied, "The Sandaime."

"He interfered?" Shoto asked, surprised, "I'm shocked to see that he's actually showing some backbone for once."

Gai grimaced, "It's not his fault, my brother, you know very well that when Yondaime left us we would fall to disaster. The civilians are at fault on this one, but at least Sarutobi is trying. For someone of his advanced years, his youthfulness is unmatched."

"So I assume they tried to force you to teach the Uchiha?" he asked.

The other man nodded, "Yes. They wanted me to demonstrate the movements and have the Uchiha copy them with that most unyouthful eye of theirs. Of course the shinobi clans refused to grant them permission, but the civies were going to go over their head until Sandaime-sama stepped in. I think it was from that day, that he started to regain his youthfulness."

Giving Gai a quizzical look, he asked, "You mean he's reconsolidating power?"

"Yes, in a most youthful fashion, my brother," Gai said with a proud grin, "You see, Sarutobi has been using his influence for the past year…ever since the incident with the Uzumaki boy," he grimaced at the thought and Shoto scowled, "Using his contacts, he usurped some of the more prominent civilian clans and brought in his own agents. Though the more powerful clans like the Ayukawa," both men scowled at the mention of the accursed clan's name, "the Ichinose, and Danzo's little faction were putting up resistance, the third was able to get some of the smaller but influential civie clans on his side. Couple those with the loyal shinobi clans and currently there are just three factions."

Shoto smiled, "The Uchiha and their pandering whore civie clans-"

"Most unyouthful wording, my brother," Gai said frowning at Shoto, "But your description of their activities do ring true."

The other man shrugged, "Then we have the Hyuuga who are pretty much neutral in everything…though they do tend to side with Sarutobi on important issues…and we have the Hokage's block, effectively breaking down much of the support from the civie councils and the thieving Uchiha," Shoto nodded, "Very nicely done."

Gai smiled, "Yes, Sandaime's youthfulness is growing. THE SPRINGTIME OF HIS YOUTH SHALL RISE AND THE WILL OF FIRE WILL BRUN ONCE AGAIN!" he shouted, clenching his fist and his eyes tearing up.

Rolling his eyes and sighing in exasperation, Shoto asked, "So what about the Uchiha?"

The other man sighed, losing his enthusiasm, "You know as well as I that they hold such unyouthfulness my brother. Their dealings are clouded by their secrecy…but the Hokage has been able to discern several meetings between the Uchiha and several missing nin. We know not who they are…but such a thing can only lead to inevitable disaster."

Shoto nodded, "What is the old man doing about this?"

Gai shook his head, "He's been trying to persuade them from not following the path that they are leading. We believe they are going to be administering some kind of coup along with the members of Root."

"Root!?" he said, surprised, "I thought Sarutobi had that division disbanded?"

"No," Gai said, "Danzo, in his eternal winter of unyouthfulness, has continued to train those children and kept Root going. Sandaime has known this but was hoping to utilize the organization in another way."

"Shock troops?" Shoto asked.

Gai nodded, "Yes. Root members bring in much money to the village. They don't balk at suicide missions and bring in a substantial part of the pay, but we both know that Danzo will try to regain his lost power, probably by attempting a coup with the Uchiha. We know nothing as of yet, such speculation…"

Jumping over one of the larger walls, they entered the commercial district, several blocks from the Houkage's tower.

"You know," Shoto said, "If they're moving, then we need-"

Immediately he froze and sniffed the air.

Gai, who had trailed ahead several meters, quickly came back and frowned, "What is it Shoto?"

Shoto took another sniff. It was faint, his sense of smell may be stronger than a normal human's thanks to his years as a shinobi, but it was nowhere near as strong as an Inuzuka, so he was having trouble localizing it, but he knew exactly what it was.

Looking Gai right in his eyes he said, "Blood. Human blood, and lots of it"

Immediately, the two men dashed off to see what was going on. Blood in the commercial district of Konoha meant only one thing, murder.

Gai, whose nose wasn't as attuned as Shoto's dashed off to check the main streets, but Shoto checked the alleys. As he came upon one he heard whimpering and sadistic laughter.

"HA! NO HOKAGE HERE DEMON! NO ANBU TO SAVE YOU NOW! YOUR BLOOD IS MINE!"

Immediately, Shoto knew exactly what was going on. No one else in the village would ever be called demon except the boy.

Cresting the rise, he caught a sight that widened his eyes. Blood was everywhere, matted onto the tattered clothes of the child that lay before the wild eyed chunin who was hefting a kunai. The man was playing with the boy, dragging out the torture. Naruto was completely incapacitated, his eyes leaving only a crack as he bleed out, dying with every second. His blonde hair was matted with his own splattered blood, and several stab wounds littered his chest, a huge rent from his collar bone to his sternum torn open showing the white of bone and pink lung tissue.

"_Dynamic Entry_…" Shoto muttered and disappeared.


	4. Chapter 03: A Demon's Pain

Chapter 03: Demon's Pain

* * *

"Now demon…" the chunin taunted with a feral grin, "Now you're going to die…"

Naruto was barely conscious. His slitted eyes only catching a blur. He was shivering uncontrollably and his limbs were completely numb, his body trying to adapt to the severe blood loss and over stimulation of pain receptors. He knew he was going to die and it would finally be over.

Tears came to his eyes as his entire life flashed in an instant. Every single nasty word, every kick, every rock thrown, every time he was stabbed, every time he was beaten within an inch of his life, every time he was tricked, poisoned, and thrown away into the garbage, it all flooded back into his mind. Anger fled, he was too tired to be angry, hope fled, he was too worn out to hope for salvation, the only thing he felt was release. He would die. All the hatred he took on a daily basis would be gone. He would never have to eat out of trashcans again, or sleep in filthy places, or freeze again, since the dead had no use for eating, no use for sleep, no need for warmth.

He thought of all the times he would go by the park and sit, watching the families, hating them and envying them at the same time. Ojisan said his parents were dead and that they loved him when they were alive. He wondered if they would love him when he died. He wondered if he would see them in the afterlife.

Maybe his Mother would hold his hand and stroke his hair like he saw other mothers do to their children? Maybe his Father would hug him, tell him he was proud of him, and carry him on his shoulders? Then they would be a family again.

He felt the metal of the kunai Ojisan gave him a few years ago and knew it was at an end.

The chunin grinned at the bloody ashen faced boy, "You ready to die demon? When you're dead, mother and father can rest, and I'll be a hero. NOBUTADA DAIICHI! HERO OF THE LEAF! THE MAN WHO DID WHAT EVEN THE YONDAIME COULD NOT, TO KILL THE KYUUBI! THAT IS WHAT I WILL BE! A HERO! NOW PREPARE TO DIE, DEMON!"

He pulled his hand back and drove the kunai forward.

Naruto tensed involuntarily flinching away, even though he welcomed death. But the blow never came. Seconds passed and yet it didn't come. Then he felt hands brushing his hair back and a faint voice calling to him.

"…-'t worry kid. I won't let you d-…Even if-…"

The words were disjointed, missing huge chunks of information. He didn't understand why the man would be talking like that to him. Suddenly he felt warmth pass over him and through him, energizing his arms and his numb legs, warming them. Then the warmth came to his chest.

There was nothing but pain.

* * *

"-A HERO! NOW, PREPARE TO DIE, DEMON!"

As the kunai descended, Shoto's foot impacted the chunin's face. A loud crunch resounded as part of his skull and the whole of his front teeth were snapped off inside of his face. He flew backwards and skidded to a halt on the seat of his pants. The chunin tried to stand up, but he fell down in a daze.

Shoto quickly assessed the boy. From the boys wounds he could tell he lost a lot of blood. The boy's skin was ashen, deathly cold, and twitched slightly indicating possible nerve damage. The gashes on his chest had cut several large arteries and veins, and a whole part of his chest had been sliced open, revealing damaged lung tissue and cleanly cut white ribs. The boy would not last without immediate treatment.

"GAI! TO ME!" he shouted, and not a second later, his green clad brother appeared within the alley.

His eyes widened at the damage and at whom all the blood had come from, "Sweet Springtime of Youth…" he muttered, "We need to take him to the hospital now!"

Shoto shook his head, "No time, Gai. We need to stabilize him now!"

Gai nodded, "You're going to release it… yes?"

Shoto nodded, "Yes. It's the only way. Secure the murderer and inform the Hokage, I'll stay and heal the boy."

His friend dashed off to restrain the dazed chunin and disappeared in a flash, taking the murderer with him.

Shoto knelt beside the boy, "Naruto! Uzumaki Naruto, can you hear me!?" he yelled at the boy, only a twitch of his eye and the slight movement told him the boy was partially conscious, "You need to fight Naruto. Fight to remain conscious. I'm going to help you. Don't worry kid. I won't let you die. Even if I have to drag you back to the hospital itself, I promise I'll save you."

The boy made no move to acknowledge him, so Shoto stood and closed his eyes. One of the tenants of the Goken was the utilization of the Hachimon, the eight chakra gates. Normally, these were inaccessible to those who did not have the will to utilize them. Of course there were other ways around this. The Akimichi had nutritional supplements that would do this, some of the more powerful techniques utilized by different clans would grant them temporary access to the power of the Hachimon, but only a Goken user was master of the gates. This was one of the main reasons why the Uchiha and the other clans coveted the practice of the Goken so greatly.

When one mastered the Goken, one was a master of the Hachimon, able to open all the seven charka gates without powerful sacrifice to your life. His sensei had taken this mastery even farther. Sakon was able to manipulate single gates in order to open and close, to pick and chose which attributes he wanted. This was a skill he passed on to his students, and Shoto was a master at this form.

He would need this skill in order to save Naruto. Thanks to the Yonamine Virus, a virus that was susceptible by genetically specific persons that attacked the chakra system, Shoto was unable to utilize normal amounts of chakra. Yes, a medic nin would probably be able to save him without using the gates, but Shoto didn't have that kind of chakra flow without the gates, he would need such to save his life.

Taking a deep breath, he searched in his mind and felt the location of the gates. Immediately, he ran through a succession of no less than fifty hand seals, bypassing each gate in succession until he came to the Gate of Closing.

Opening his eyes, he shouted, "Tomon! Kai!"

The world around him exploded in a rush of blue chakra. It swirled around his body and suffused his depleted chakra coils with a rush of pure strong chakra. The rush nearly intoxicated him. Rushing through hand seals, he shouted, "Shousen Jutsu!" His hands exploded in a bright green light as he fought to control the chakra flow and form it into the medical jutsu.

When he had sufficiently controlled it, he placed his hands on Naruto, willing the chakra to enter his body. He first pulled back the blood from the interstitial spaces, refilling his capillaries, and then pushed it through his body, repairing blood vessels as they came into contact with his probing chakra. He warmed the blood and used it to push into the extremities, bringing much needed oxygen back to the tissues. Though he tried, he could only do so much. Bones were beyond him as the capillaries were much too small and numerous, and the regrowth process much too complicated to repair. The only thing he could do was affix chakra to the jagged ends as to prevent further damage to the tissues. Next he picked the boy up and turned him over, careful not to get dirt into the gashes, and proceeded to push out the congealed blood from his lungs. Naruto coughed violently, spraying the loose blood and the large branching clots of blood out onto the ground. As his lungs cleared, Naruto took a gasping breath as he coughed, new oxygenated blood filling his body.

As soon as he finished, the gate closed and his body began to hurt everywhere. Opening gates was not something he enjoyed doing. Of course it wasn't too bad as opening the physical gates, but his organs and several other systems would be slightly altered for a while thanks to the abnormal amount of chakra flowing through them. He stood on aching legs as he waited for help to arrive. A few seconds later, he could feel Gai and the Houkage approaching with several other unfamiliar signatures.

Making Naruto comfortable, he jumped up and waved them down.

As they approached, he could literally feel the mixed emotions from the Hokage. The killing intent seemed to be rolling off the old man, his weary face contorted in anger, yet there was profound fear there. He knew the man wasn't concerned about the Kyuubi. That was not the fear he was feeling; the emotion was the kind given off when in fear for the life of another.

"Hokage-sama!" he waved them down. They renewed their pace, doubling their speed. He recognized a quad of ANBU trailing in the back, and two white robed medic-nins shadowing the old man closely, with Gai at the head.

When they reached him the Hokage began to bark orders to the medic nins, as they used the shousen jutsu to repair the damage he forgot. Several pills were forced down the near comatose boy's throat as they examined him.

The ANBU spread out to see if there were any witnesses to the crime and Gai knelt down next to the boy as they worked on him.

With relief and fear in his eyes, the Houkage turned to Shoto, "Shoto, what happened?"

Shoto bowed, "I returned from my training trip and was coming to see you when we smelled blood in the air. We caught that chunin trying to tear the boy apart and stopped him before. I had to use the Hachimon to save his life, but I think he'll pull through. What happened to the chunin?"

Sarutobi scowled, "The fool is with Ibiki now. I believe this was much more than a simple ambush Shoto…"

Shoto nodded, "Yes. I was surprised that there wasn't any patrols during this time, the amount of blood in the air was very noticeable, especially misplaced in the commercial district…where were the ANBU or the Military Police?"

The Houkage shook his head, "That is what we're trying to find out. they should have been around here…it could be a plot by one of our enemies…they are not happy that I allow Naruto to live, nor do they like the power I'm consolidating within eh council…" the old man grit his teeth, "I swear…if I track this back to any of the civilians…"

The Red Beast nodded grimly.

"Hokage-sama," said one of the medic-nins, "We managed to repair what Shoto-sama was unable to, but we will need more supplies. The child has lost too much blood, and I'm afraid that there will complications. We need to get blood and fluids running into him now or else we may lose him by the morning."

Sarutobi nodded, "Alright. Keep-"

"Ojisan…" the voice called, "…is that you…o-Ojisan?"

The old man knelt next to the boy, "I'm here Naruto. Don't worry Gaki, you'll be alright. Come, save your strength now."

The boy's blood splattered face made a semblance of a weak grin, "I-I'm going to see…to see mother and…and father…right Ojisan?"

Sarutobi's face froze. He didn't know what to say about this. Did the boy think he was dying? Then why would he be happy…?

"Naruto," Sarutobi said, picking the boy up in his arms, "Don't worry about anything. You're going to be alright…"

As gently as they could they made their way to the hospital. The boy slipped in and out of consciousness, mumbling incoherent sentences and sometimes screaming out randomly. The few villagers who were out were shocked. Though they might have been willing to alienate the child and to abuse him mentally, the physical brutalization and the sheer amount of blood that soaked the boy as well as the Hokage's robes shocked the citizens. The few that grinned at the sight of the boy's limp body quickly wet themselves at a single look from the enraged Kage. As it was, one of the civilians were taken into custody for breaking the third's law about mentioning the Kyuubi. He would never see the light of day as they spent the rest of his short life under the tender mercies of Morino Ibiki.

They approached the hospital and the medic nins rushed forward to prepare the boy's room and a surgical team to repair the extensively damaged lungs and rib cage. The Konohagakure General Hospital was the largest building in Konoha besides the administrative buildings that housed the government and the ANBU headquarters. It took of several city blocks and was an unmistakable landmark within the city.

It was through the large double doors of the emergency room that the Sandaime took the boy to. Expecting to find a bed and a surgical team waiting, the old man was shocked to see his two personal medic-nins arguing with several hospital staff and the director of the hospital as they barred entry.

"I WILL NOT HAVE THAT DEMON IN MY HOSPITAL! HOKAGE'S ORDERS OR NOT! HE HAS NO POWER OVER CIVILIAN AFFIARS AND I WILL NOT AID THAT DEMON'S RECOVERY!" yelled the pompous pinch faced director.

The medic nins were arguing back and forth with the man, trying to press their point, but the director was not alone. Several doctors, a handful of nurses, and even two shinobi chakra healers were overwhelming the two medic-nins shouting obscenities as well as condemning them as demon lovers.

"HOW DARE YOU BRING THAT THING HERE!"

"TAKE THAT DEMON AND GET OUT OF HERE, YOU DAMN SHINOBI!"

"YOU DON'T HAVE ANY SWAY HERE, SHINOBI FOOLS! I'LL KILL THAT DAMN FOX DEM-URGH!"

The last doctor who spoke gurgled as he choked on his blood, a kunai stuck through his throat. Shoto strode in and yanked it out, making the others back away at the sight of the Red Beast of Konoha.

"Though I haven't been in the village for several years," he started, pulling out several kunai from a hip pouch, "I still believe that the third's rule is still in effect is it not?"

Several nurses ran out of the room and a doctor followed them, but the two chakra healers as well as a few doctors and the director were still there. Flipping three kunai in his hands, he casually tossed them to his left and heard a man and two women scream as the lodged into their retreating backs, incapacitating them but leaving them alive for the Third's judgement. Immediately, the others who had foolishly stuck around began to clamor over each other, trying to get away, but they froze as two ANBU walked into the room.

Shoto checked the floor and saw a dark shadow extending from a rat masked ANBU holding his hands in a seal. A Nara then, he thought to himself.

The Sandaime stepped forward, still holding a shivering Naruto and addressed the director, "For your crimes, I'll send you over to Ibiki for a very long talk."

The man's eyes widened and the smell of urine filled the room.

"If any of you have broken my law you will suffer the consequnces of your actions. That is all," he said, sweeping into the emergency room and taking the boy with him.

The ANBU quickly moved and apprehended those that broke the law and disappeared in a swirl of leaves. Shoto and Gai walked into the ER and located the boy's bed, where the nurses were starting IVs and pushing fluids into him. Several civilian chakra healers were fixing the boy under the watchful eye of both the shinobi healers as well as the Hokage himself.

"What is the extent of the damage, Hokage-sama?" Shoto asked.

Sarutobi looked up and frowned, "The healers tell me they should be able to prevent sepsis, but he should be here for several weeks for observation. Naruto had extensive vascular damage as well as a severely punctured lung, not to mention the damage to the bones. It will take time for the chakra healers to completely fix the tissue damage and the bones will have to reknit by themselves, but he should be back to functioning within the month…"

Gai frowned, "What about his security…" he grimaced as he saw the dark looks the boy was getting from the hospital staff, "…such unyouthfulness do I sense within these walls. Surely the boy can recuperate elsewhere?"

The Sandaime shook his head, "No Gai. This is the best place, but I will have ANBU on guard. The council has interfered long enough in shinobi affairs and I will no longer stand aside, especially when it pertains to the health of one of Konoha's citizens."

Shoto nodded, but frowned, "Sandaime-sama, may I speak with you in private?"

Sarutobi nodded and walked into the hall, "What is it Shoto?"

"Something is wrong here," he said, "I had heard that Jinchuriki have extensive healing attributes. Why does the Uzumaki boy not have them? When I treated the kid, it felt as if I were healing a civilian…"

Again, the third grimaced and pulled Shoto further away, "This is an S rank secret, Shoto. Should this get out, Naruto will be done for, do you understand me?" Shoto nodded as the third continued, "You heard about the incident involving the ANBU that kidnapped the boy for several days did you not?"

"Jiraiya-sama told me about it. Happened a little over a year ago. You guys managed to find him before anything more than physical happened to the boy," he replied.

"Yes, but that is not the whole story, Shoto," the third said and Shoto frowned, "What really happened was that the ANBU was working for someone doing experiments on our shinobi."

Shoto recalled the reports, "Yes I remember something about disappearances. About sixty civies and a whole bunch of Hyuuga and Uchiha over the last decade or so, right?"

Sarutobi nodded, "Yes. We haven't caught the perpetrator yet, but we did link together the cases. It seems our kidnapper was working for the same person. Naruto was captured, not to torture him, but to examine the seal."

The younger man started, "You mean someone was actually trying to mess with Yondaime's seal!?"

"Yes," Sarutobi confirmed, "the ANBU in question was Tadano Kisuke, one of the only people who studied under the Yondaime in sealing."

Shoto frowned, "So they were trying to what? Release the Kyuubi or something?"

Sarutobi shook his head, "We don't' know the full extent to what they were trying to do, but we do know he was keeping notes on the flow of chakra, how it was dissipated through the charka coils, as well as how it holds back the demon. We have several theories, chief of which was that they were trying to create more Jinchuriki, probably from lesser demons."

"Alright, so what did they do to his seal?" Shoto asked.

Sarutobi grimaced, "The fool was an amateur, plus, he was young. The only reason why Tadano was chosen to join ANBU was because of his sealing knowledge. The boy was too headstrong, too foolhardy. He thought he could alter the seal on the child; to play with it. Inadvertently, he damaged a large portion of it."

"How?" Shoto asked.

"Tell me, what do you know about the Shiki Fujin?" Sarutobi asked.

Shoto thought for a few seconds. He studied basic sealing under his sensei and had learned how to do containment seals and how to create explosive tags and such, but his skills did not enter into the complex art of sealing sentient forces and he knew very little of how the Shiki Fujin worked.

When Sarutobi saw his puzzling expression he explained, "When Minato-kun created and implemented the Shiki Fujin on the Kyuubi, he made it so there were two layered seals upon the original containment seal of the Kyuubi's. The original Shiki Fujin is designed to draw the Shinigami into this world in order to have it create a seal itself. Using its power, the Shinigami creates an extra-dimentional space within the Jinchuriki in order to encapsulate it. Since the Shinigami's work is near infallible, there was really no way it could break through normal means. But," Sarutobi said, "Tell me what happens when you seal an active force within an object that cannot expand or release pressure?"

That question Shoto knew. It was why you couldn't keep explosive tags, which were simply fire chakra sealed under pressure within chakra infused paper, for more than a few months. If you did, the tags would explode and release the expended chakra. Many a good ninja or shop keep was killed in such a way, hence the strict control and use of explosive tags.

"I see, so if he simply sealed it within Naruto, using the Shiki Fujin, then, essentially, Naruto would have blown up," he replied.

Sarutobi nodded, "That is correct. Thus, Minato needed to develop a way to release the pressure. That is the purpose of the secondary seal the Shisho Fuin. This secondary seal pierces the Shiki Fujin allowing controlled release and equilibrium as the Fox's chakra is being released."

Shoto frowned, "But such youki being released into the body of a living human…"

"You see the point," Sarutobi said, "That leak is the reason for the third seal. The Hakke no Fuin was the final barrier between Naruto's chakra coils and the fox's. The Hakke no Fuin was utilized as a converter, purifying the Youki, lessening its corrosive effects and allowing it to naturally drain into the boy's systems. In effect, Minato created a constant flow of charka into the boy's systems, giving him boundless energy, increased stamina, as well as adapting the boy's chakra coils to the harmful youki. The purified youki also had the added effect of acting as youki would in a demon, healing the host as well as protecting him."

Shoto nodded, "So what happened?"

"Tadano did not know about the last two seals, he only knew about the Shiki Fujin, thus, he disregarded the others and focused on that. He used an overlaying odd numbered seal to negate the even numbered Shisho Fuin. Though it should have just negated the effects of all three seals, the boy was not very skilled at sealing and made a mistake in his calculations. Instead of negating the seal as a Goya Fuin would, the counter seal ruptured the Shisho Fuin. The sheer release of Youki is what allowed us to find Naruto. Luckily, Jiraiya was in the vicinity and noticed the outflow. He was there within a few hours and examined the original seal."  
The younger man understood and Sarutobi continued, "So with the regulating seal damaged, the breaches in the Shiki Fujin were allowed to rupture further. Youki spilled out into his system and the Fox reawakened. Luckily Jiraiya had helped Minato construct the Shiki Fujin and was able to seal the fox back in…but…"

The realization of what they did shocked Shoto, "You sealed his entire charka system…"

Sarutobi's face crumpled, the years of fighting and disappointment etched into his features, "Yes. His entire chakra system is locked. We reinforced the gates as to redirect the youki back into the seal and fused his tenketsu shut. Since he had years of channeling the youki thorough his chakra coils, they had adapted to contain them. As it is, the youki is released through the sealed coils and flows back into the breaches, equalizing pressure as the coils are able to swell and adjust accordingly. As a side effect to that…he is completely cut off from his chakra, unable to utilize or even sense it."

That shook Shoto up badly. When he spoke to Jiraiya, the perverted hermit would talk about the blonde haired Jinchuriki in a fond manner. Of course he had never met the kid, but hearing of his exploits and his strong will, it almost appeared as if Jiraiya would have wanted to take the boy on as an apprentice. From the reports Jiraiya gave him, the kid had an almost unnatural amount of Chakra and his resourcefulness was legendary. Shoto knew that the boy's lifelong dream was to become a shinobi and then Hokage, but now, that dream was gone, washed away by a hateful populace as well as the machinations of a madman.

"Does…"he hesitated, "Does the boy know?"

Sarutobi grimaced, "Yes. He was five when I broke it to him. Earlier that year I bought him a set of kunai, so he could practice, but…it's useless now. The boy will never be a shinobi. Without even accessing his chakra, unable to have it flow through is body and muscles, his stamina would be lower than even some of the civilians. His attacks would have no strength, he would move too slowly, and his reflexes would be deadened. Should he ever punch anything, his arm would shatter as a civilian's would."

Shoto sighed, "How did he take it?"

"He was shocked at first. For someone like Naruto who had nothing, only his dream of one day being the Hokage, the blow was something that was a little too powerful and he spent the next day in a near catatonic state. He refused to eat or do anything when the hospital staff came in. The next day, I came down to see him, but he was missing. Of course the hospital staff didn't really care and not even the ANBU I had stationed outside knew where he went, so I tried to discern his whereabouts and finally found him, hours later. He was in Practice Field 25, practicing with the kunai I gave him."

The younger man shook his head sadly.

The Third continued, "He's a stubborn boy though. I've tried so many times to tell him, but he is fixated on his dream. He is a remarkable young man…" Sarutobi smiled sadly, "He told me 'Jiji! You just wait, I'll be the first Hokage to not be able to use chakra! When I beat you with my awesome Taijutsu skills you'll have to fork over that hat of yours and acknowledge me as the Greatest Shinobi Alive!'"

Shoto chuckled sadly, "And he continues to practice?"

"Yes. Even when the other kids tease him, even when he's beaten, he keeps getting up. Every single day, I see him at one of the practice fields training. The boy doesn't give up…he would've made an exceptional Shinobi…"Sarutobi sighed and fixed his hat, "We'll talk about your reinstatement tomorrow Shoto, but for now, I have to check with the ANBU to see what they found."

Shoto followed Sarutobi back to where the boy was resting. When he appeared the boy seemed to stir, his bright blue eyes latching on to the Houkage.

"Jiji," he said in a weak voice his face turning into a frown, "You're here too?"

Sarutobi smiled, "Yes Naruto, I am."

Naruto teared a bit, "I'm sorry you had to die, Jiji…"

The Houkage looked taken back, "I'm not dead yet Naruto, and neither are you…"

That seemed to shock the boy a bit, "Oh…" he said, dejectedly, "I thought I was…everyone was being nice to me a little while ago…no one was hurting me…so I thought…"

Sarutobi smiled sadly, "It's okay Naruto. You're safe now, don't worry about anything, alright?"

Naruto looked disappointed, "So…I won't see…Mother or Father?"

The old man smoothed down his blood soaked hair, "I'm sorry Naruto, but you won't see them for quite some time. You need to live strong as you have been, and live well, alright?"

The blonde haired boy smiled and asked, "Alright Jiji…hey…Jiji…do you think they'd be proud of me…?"

Swallowing hard, Sarutobi nodded with a smile, "Yes, Naruto, I think they are. Sleep now," he said, passing his hand over the boy's eyes and lulling him into sleep.

As Sarutobi stood, Gai scowled, "I do not like this Hokage-sama. Naruto-kun is a boy with unfathomable Youthfulness, yet this town is sucking it from him. He will become embittered should you allow the unyouthfulness of the civilians and the foolish shinobi to continue. Why do you allow it?"

Sarutobi's face hardened, "You know why Gai. You understand more than anyone what is happening in Konoha. Should I even move to help, the council, including the majority of the shinobi clans, will move against me, and I cannot allow that, not yet. We've come too far in retaking the city from the civies to jeopardize all of that. All I can do is help the boy a little, enforce the laws that were in place and explain away the small inconsistencies. It is all I can do. Now I need to go, excuse me," he said, walking from the room.

After making sure the boy would be taken care of by the Houkage's medic nin and the ANBU stationed by his bed, the two Taijutsu specialists left the Hospital. They walked in silence for a time, each unwilling to comment on the terrors they just experienced. Finally, it was Shoto who broke the silence.

"Is it always like this for the boy?" Shoto asked his friend.

Gai nodded solemnly, "Naruto-kun has been through much thanks to this village. They beat him, cheat him, insult him, yet his spirit never breaks. He keeps trudging on, such youthfulness is a rare commodity in the village, yet he is plagued by the cursed council."

"What did the council do to restrict Sarutobi from helping him?" Shoto asked.

Gai explained, "Do you remember the day when we came back, how the entire village was in an uproar?" Shoto nodded, "Come to find out, when Sarutobi informed the village council, nearly everyone, including the clans, demanded the boy be killed. Sandaime tried to restrict this by creating the law, but he was unable to restrict it in time. The older generation discovered this from one of the civilian council heads and the populace went on a rampage. It took the execution of thirteen people as well as two council heads to stop it. The law was enforced strictly after that, but the civies, who had the most power by then, placed restrictions on the Hokage's influence. Naruto-kun was considered a red spot. No contact was to be had between the Sandaime and the boy, and no help was to be given to the child outside of the general laws of Konoha."

He frowned, "But Jiraiya-sama always said that the boy had the occasional contact with the third. Hell, he even calls the old man jiji. How can that be?"

Gai laughed, "They don't call him the Professor for nothing, my most youthful brother Shoto. We think it's some kind of genjutsu or maybe a henge, but none of us really know, and the council can't prove it."

Shoto asked, "So does everyone on the shinobi council hate the boy?"

He shook his head, "Not everyone. Some of the clans are apathetic to the boy. These are the Inuzuka and the Aburame Clans, but they don't want to help him either. No one really wants to relate to the boy, I think they see him as a reminder of the past they wish to forget. I've tried to help him…but he doesn't trust me at all. The only people he trusts are the third and the people at Ichiraku, and even they are too poor to do much more than give him a free bowl of ramen on the occasion. The situation for him is very unyouthful…"

"What about money?" Shoto asked, "Does he have any?"

Gai shrugged, "Even if he did, they'd just throw him out. I once met such an unyouthful young man who owned a small shop. He'd been looking for some extra help and had the sign out for several weeks. While I was in there, doing some shopping for mother, young Naruto-kun came in to inquire about the position," he sighed and shook his head, "The boy was only four years old, yet he understood, at least the barebones, of economics."

"So what happened?" Shoto asked.

Gai scowled, "I ended up breaking that young man's neck when he tried to beat the poor child for asking."

Nothing else was said the rest of the way back to his apartment. As he sat in his lonely apartment, Shoto began to think about his sensei.

Sakon's last lesson to the two boys had been about the true strength behind the Goken. He told them that, to become a true Taijutsu master, to become a true warrior, one required three things: the first, a strong will, for without the strength of fortitude you would lose; the second was a quick mind, for without the strength of mind you are simply a muscle that cannot pump; and finally, the most important, you need to have a dream, for without dreams there is no drive nor is there the will to focus the mind.

He thought of all these things. It was long into the morning until he retired to bed.

* * *

AN: Thanks for Reading


	5. Chapter 04: The Genjutsu Mistress

Chapter 04: The Genjutsu Mistress

* * *

"Nee, Sensei, are we doing another D rank today?" asked Aoba Yamashiro asked his sensei as they walked.

Yuuhi Kurenai, who was walking in the back, rolled her eyes. She'd been a genin for nearly a year already, having been added on to the three man cell when her predecessor passed away on a C-ranked mission. To her right was the oddly proper Tobita Ebisu, who kept eyeing her strangely behind his round black shades when he thought she wasn't looking. He was several years older than her at thirteen, but had not yet been promoted to chunin. The strange boy liked to think of himself as an expert philosopher and observer, but Kurenai was beginning to suspect that the strange young man was nothing more than a closet pervert.

A head of them was Yamashiro Aoba, the eldest of the genins at fifteen and the most senior of the shinobi under their jonin sensei Hyuuga Aoi. Aoba was a strange guy, acting more like an Inuzuka than a shinobi from a civilian clan. The boy seemed to have limitless stamina with skills that were only mediocre at best. She had a hard time believing that Aoba managed to outlive an Uchiha and a Yamanaka, but as he was a long distance weapons specialist, she could understand the reason behind his resilience.

Their sensei, Hyuuga Aoi, was currently walking in front, her jonin flak jacket covering the long flowing robes the Hyuuga often preferred. Though as stoic as any Hyuuga, Aoi seemed to understand the position of a kunoichi within the group and often showed uncharacteristic compassion to Kurenai during times when the young genjutsu mistress seemed lost or unsure.

Aoi nodded, "Yes, we are Aoba. Your teamwork on our last C-rank has not improved in the slightest, so I feel we will benefit with more team building. And that means more D rank missions."

The teenager scoffed, "Oh come on, Sensei! It's not our fault that Kurenai can't keep up with us!?"

A flash of irritation crossed the white eyed woman's face, but she hid it well. Kurenai, on the other hand, was at her wits' end with the arrogant bastard's grumbling and shifted through several hand seals.

"Magen: Dankon na hima," she whispered, sending the genjutsu at the boy's unprotected back.

Immediately, Aoba stopped dead in his tracks, eyes widening till they were about to pop out of his skull and furiously began trying to feel himself up. Kurenai was laughing on the inside as the boy was jumping around and yelling at the top of his lungs.

"MY-MY-MY-MY-THING! WHAT HAPPENED TO MY THING!"

That got the attention of the few civilians up at the time. Several old men roared in laughter and the old ladies turned up their noses, whispering and admonishing the boy for his rude behavior.

Aoba, finally getting it together, at least somewhat, turned frantic to his sensei, "SENSEI! SENSEI! PLEASE, YOU NEED TO HELP ME FIND IT! IT'S GONE!" he yelled, pulling down his pants and giving everyone an eyeful.

Aoi turned a critical eye on the delirious genin and Ebisu ran over to his team mate.

"How dare you do such a despicable thing!" he yelled, "I Tobita Ebisu! Son of the honorable Tobita family shall punish you!"

Pulling out a bludgeon, he would have brained his friend had their Sensei not intervened by slapping the weapon out of Ebisu's hand and giving the Yamashiro boy a chakra powered slap, using the pain to dispel the psychosomatic genjutsu.

Immediately, Aoba pulled out of the genjutsu induced panic and realized that he was standing in the middle of the street, his pants hanging around his ankles as he sexually assaulted his teacher.

Screaming at the top of his lungs, he yanked his pants up and took off towards the tower at a run, tripping over himself a few times and going white shiny bottoms up on a few of the more spectacular falls. Ebisu, who had been admonished by their jonin sensei walked ahead, a blush suffusing his cheeks as he hurried forward.

Kurenai was more than satisfied at her handy work and had to hold back her laughter as she walked along with her sensei. Though the youngest on the team, Yuuhi Kurenai was more skilled than most of her peers. Graduating from the academy at nine years old at the top of her class, the young woman was an oddity of sorts. The Yuuhi clan was never on the Konoha roster of shinobi families, nor were they on the civilian family lists. No one knew much about her past, she had just showed up one day in the middle of the main Konoha Avenue, her dirty ripped kimono naming her a refugee or something of the sort. The Fourth's men found her in the street and brought her to him. Recognizing her potential, the Yondaime accepted her into the shinobi clans, and found someone to take her in.

She was eventually raised by one of the Yamanakas, and it was from them that she had grown into the powerful kunoichi she was today. Though not entirely skilled in taijutsu or ninjutsu, she wasn't called the next Genjutsu Mistress of Konoha for nothing. Coupling her astounding charka control with the genjutsu she learned from the Yamanakas, Kurenai was actually able to develop her own original genjutsus. Such a skill had not been seen in Konoha in decades. Ever since the disgrace of the once powerful Kurama clan, the genjutsu mastery Konoha once boasted had begun to fall. But in Yuuhi Kurenai, the Village Council saw a way to revitalize that part of their forces, to develop a new line of genjutsu specialists that could stand up to the power of the foreign shinobi forces. Currently, she was simply awaiting her sensei's permission to join the chuunin exams, though she understood why Aoi was loath to submit their names, especially at such a young age.

Life for kunoichi was so very different than for Shinobi. The dangers they faced were far crueler than their male counterparts. It was not uncommon for genin teams to be ambushed, the male members slain, but the female members captured to be used for a few nights of pleasure and then sold into slavery once they grew board of their prey. Even the kinds of missions they were assigned were vastly different. Men were usually called on for direct combat, fighting on patrols, or for direct assaults. Women in the ninja ranks were called on for different kinds of missions. Information gathering was chief amongst those missions. Women were smaller than men, they were more silent, quicker, and for the most part, were more intelligent and observant. But where they were really called on, were seduction tactics. A kunoichi was expected to bed any kind of man, in order to get information and other kinds of details, and she was to do it without complaint or hesitation.

She'd been shocked at the revelation when the kunoichi were taught that during their time in the Academy, and more than half of the kunoichi who originally joined quit the next day. Kurenai had not been called upon to do such a thing yet, but she knew it would be inevitable.

"Kurenai…" came the voice of her sensei.

The red eyed genjutsu mistress jumped at the sound and turned a sheepish look onto their sensei. Aoi had a hard look on her face, but her white eyes were dancing with mirth.

"I assume you did such a thing to teach young Yamashita a lesson. Am I correct?" Aoi asked.

Kurenai knew she was caught and simply replied, "Well, he deserved it Aoi-sensei. How dare he underestimate kunoichi! Especially after I saved him on our last C-rank when he was dumb enough to walk right into that trap!?"

Aoi chuckled, "I never said what you did was wrong. I only wanted to know if you did it for a reason. Had you not done so with a good reason, I would have punished you, but as you did so to teach Aoba not to underestimate his opponents, I will not."

The red eyed girl giggled behind her hand and replied, "Of course sensei. That's exactly what I was getting at."

The three genin and their jonin sensei continued to walk through the halls of the Hokage tower. She never ceased to be amazed at the goings on in the bustling building complex. Everywhere she looked, there were shinobi and kunoichi running their daily lives, either doing research in the huge shinobi library, transporting prisoners into the ANBU wing, filing reports with the various divisions, training in technical work, or a myriad of other odd jobs that required completion. It was always a hive of activity, even as early as it was.

Aoi-sensei always had them meet her for assignments as early as they could. Their usual work consisted of a D rank mission in the morning, and training until the evening, with a short break for lunch at mid day. As a consequence to that, they were allowed to get their assignments directly from the Hokage himself, a plus in her book as the head of their village knowing her name and face would be most beneficial to her career.

Moving down the hall, they greeted the Hokage's secretary, an old near senile kunoichi, and waited just outside the office. As the doors were partially open, Kurenai, having near perfect charka control, could make out what they were talking about by pushing charka into her ears and enhancing sound, much like the Inuzuka could do. Though impossible to do safely for normal shinobi, Kurenai's chakra control was so good that she could enhance it without diminishing the function of her ears, a skill she was more than proud of.

_"Good morning Hokage-sama,"_ said a deep voice.

The wizened old voice of the Hokage greeted the man, _"Welcome back Shoto. I assume that you are well rested? I plan on working you like a draft horse for those five years you went on vacation."_

The deep voiced man, Shoto, chuckled, _"Yes, don't worry about it Hokage-sama, I can handle anything you give me."_

The Hokage chuckled_, "Alright then Shoto. Well, I have to give you solo missions for a while. Your old team mates have all been reassigned, and the only team openings we have are in the ANBU. Are you still unwilling to commit to them, Shoto?"_

Shoto replied, _"I have told you my response to that Hokage-sama. But should you need another fist, I shall be there, but as it stands, I do not wish to take up a mask."_

_"I see,"_ replied the Hokage, _"I will reinstate you. I need you to familiarize yourself with the village once again, as well as the people. I might have you evaluate our new crop of Tokubetsu Jonins' skills, some of them are lacking."_

"_Yes, I've met several, Hokage-sama, and I am not very pleased with their progress,"_ he finished.

The Hokage sighed, _"I know. Most of them were political appointees, but what can we do. We're slowly consolidating our strength, but there's nothing we can do at this point in time. Anyway, I'll have you reinstated within the week. Take the rest of the time off, I'll send a missive to you when we're ready to have you on duty. Dismissed."_

Shoto seemed to step away, but walked back_, "Hokage-sama, I have a quick question."_

The Hokage asked, _"Is this about Naruto?"_

Kurenai frowned. Naruto? She heard that name before. Mister Yamanaka had said something about a demon child in reference to that name, and Naruto was not a very common name at all. I mean, who would name their kid after a damn ramen topping!? So this Naruto had to be one in the same. But why would they call him a demon child?

The man replied, _"Yes Hokage-sama. After the attack last night, I wanted to check on him to see if there were any changes."_

_"Nothing as of yet, Shoto. The boy is resilient, even for someone with his limitations. He will be in room 224, if you wish to visit him. I think he could use the company, and he probably would like to thank you if he recognizes you. Naruto is a good boy, so he probably would,"_ said the Hokage.

Shoto replied, _"Yes I'm sure he is. Gai had very good things to say about him, and Jiraiya thinks highly of him as well."_

_"Oh? You spoke to my old student?"_ the Hokage asked.

_"Yes I did Hokage-sama. We met up about three years ago, and sometime last year. I now understand why he looked so guarded when I asked about the village,"_ he said, his voice hardening.

The Hokage sighed_, "Yes. Well, we must move on. I think we have a genin team outside right now. Good luck, Shoto and say hello to Shina and Yosh for me."_

Kurenai quickly let the chakra fade as she stood outside, waiting for the door to open. What did they mean about the attack? The demon boy was in the hospital? But if he really was a demon child, then why would the Hokage, Lord Jiraiya, as well as the Taijutsu Master Maito Gai speak highly of him? It piqued her interest.

Suddenly, the doors opened and a tall man walked out. Her jaw dropped as she recognized the red hand wraps and the red chakra bandages around his calves. It was Kanga Shoto, the Vengeful Red Beast of Konoha, the Master of the Goken, and one of the Twin Beasts of the Leaf. They were in the presence of a legend.

As he strode out, his short pointed black beard oiled and his piercing stare taking in everything, his eyes settled on Aoi.

"Aoi-san!?" he said.

Their sensei's face lit up with an uncharacteristic grin, "Shoto-san!? Is that really you?"

The man walked over and caught their sensei up in a bear hug, "Sweet Kami! It's so good to see you again Aoi-san! How are your parents?"

Aoi chuckled, "They're fine you great Ox. How many times did I tell you not to do that to me!"

The two adults bantered back and forth catching up on old times, until Shoto realized that she had a genin team with her.

"Aoi-san. Is this your team?" he asked.

She nodded, "Yes. I was assigned one three years ago. This is Yamashiro Aoba," she said, introducing hyperactive boy, "This is Tobita Ebisu," Shoto shook the boy's hand and had to pry his arm away from the boy who was nearly drooling at the God of the Strong Fist, "And finally, this is Yuuhi Kurenai."

Shoto's eyes widened at the name, "Pleased to meet you Yuuhi-san. You know, I was the one that spotted you when you first came to the village," he said with a sad smile, "You were such a tiny little thing back then," he chuckled at her indignant look, "If you need anything, just ask your sensei for my address," he said, turning to Aoi, "I'm still at the same place. Well, I've got to top by the hospital for a bit."

Aoi frowned, "What happened? Did you hurt yourself training again?"

Shoto shook his head, "Not me. There was another attack on the kid, last night."

Their sensei frowned, "Again? Kami, that poor child," she finished shaking her head.

Shoto just nodded, "Yes. I found him there and had to rush him to the hospital after doing a little patch work. It wasn't a pretty sight. Anyway," he said, shaking himself, "I'll see you around Aoi-san."

The man walked away, waving over his shoulder as he went around the corner.

Kurenai curious and asked, "Someone was hurt last night, sensei?"

Aoi shook herself and nodded, "Yes. Someone attacked a child last night, but he's alright now. Shoto-san managed to stop it. But it doesn't concern us. Shall we?"

The three genin nodded and walked into the Hokage's office after their sensei. The Hokage's chambers were impressive to say the least. Though generally a wood paneled room, the office looked the size of a large classroom, with the great heavy desk was set against a large window pane and the backdrop of the city clear as day. All along the sides of the room were pictures and scrolls, framed for posterity. There was the Credo of the Konoha ninja, the Oath of Fire, several instrumental treaties, as well as pictures of all four Hokage. She'd always been partial to the Yondaime herself, she liked the whole blonde hair blue eyed look, but the fact that he was the strongest of the four wasn't bad either.

"Good morning, Aoi-san," said the Houkage as he smiled, his cheeks puffing as he smoked his pipe.

Aoi bowed, "Good morning Hokage-sama. We are here for a D-ranked mission."

Sarutobi smiled and nodded, "Of course. Still not happy with the teamwork, are we?"

Their sensei nodded, "That is correct Hokage-sama. Though I am not certain about their teamwork, their individual skills have improved greatly. I believe, should they demonstrate teamwork, that I will be willing to enter them into the Chunin Exams next year."

That got the three genins excited. The thought of going to the chunin exams made them stand prouder as their sensei extolled their virtues.

"I shall be looking forward to their performance, Aoi-san," the Houkage said, "Now, as for available missions…" he rummaged around on his desk, "Here, they are requesting assistance at Konoha General. It seems as though they have a shortage of support staff there and the civilian nurses require assistants. You will be assisting in patient care, cleaning, giving baths, assisting in ambulation, and practicing your first aide skills on patients that the nurses deem adequate. Please refrain from harassing or bothering both the patients and the staff, if you would."

Aoi snapped to attention, "Thank you Hokage-sama."

Ebisu, who was frowning as they were walking out, asked, "Are we really going to be…er…washing patients?"

Aoba laughed, "Yeah, but only little old men for you, Ebisu! We don't want you to get us thrown out of the shinobi forces for trying to molest a little old lady!"

The affronted young man scowled at his team mate, "Well I never, you uncouth barbarian!"

They bickered all the way there.


	6. Chapter 05: Medical Maleficence

Chapter 05: Medical Maleficence

* * *

Naruto's eyes fluttered open as he heard the door click shut.

He was slipping in and out of consciousness ever since that time in the alley with that crazy shinobi, yelling something about him killing his parents. He never killed a single person in his entire life! How the hell did that crazy guy make the assumption that he killed his parents!? Then again, he was accused so many times in the past he was beginning to think he was crazy himself. There was that kindly old lady who told him he could eat with her. Once he had the soup down his throat, the woman cackled and blamed him for killing her husband and children. That little episode was one of the most painful since he had trusted the old woman and she had betrayed that trust. Then, there was the time where those villagers cornered him on his birthday. If it wasn't for that ANBU he would have died. So many times, so many years, yet he still had no answer for the accusations of murder and mayhem that seemed to follow him wherever he went.

After about the third time it happened, he started to wonder if he really did do those things. Maybe he was doing it in his sleep or something he was doing unconciously!? But then he stayed awake for two whole days, trying to figure out if he was hurting people in his sleep, but the entire time he never hurt a single thing. When he found out, he told the next person who blamed him for their family's death. Had it not been for yet another ANBU he wouldn't have survived that encounter either.

So many attempts on his life, the time he got stabbed in the leg, the time he was poisoned, the time he was choked nearly to death, the time he spent a week unconscious, yet this last one was the worst. He never felt so sore before. It seared his lungs every time he breathed and when he coughed, it felt like his insides were going to burst open.

Normally, at least from what he heard the nurses telling other patients in the hospital from his many times here, he should have asked for some pain killers. He knew better though. The last time he was here, was when his leg had been stabbed by a crazy shop keeper. He asked the nurse for something to ease the pain, the nurse gave him a sneer and injected something into him that made his other leg swell up five times its' normal size and hurt even more than his other wound.

She just laughed at him and asked if his other leg still hurt. He never asked again.

But this pain was much worse than before. Every other time, he could visualize the pain away, ignoring it, but now, even when he breathed it was painful. He knew no one would help him, no one cared enough about him to do anything. From the bandages on his wounds and the amount of draining soaking the them, he could tell he'd been out for almost half a day. He could always tell by the smell. Since no one changed the dressings, he knew how long he'd been out. He had to get out of here, and maybe he could steal a few bandages so it wouldn't get too infected.

Stealing himself, he rolled to the side, making sure not to roll over any of the numerous wounds on his chest, and used his legs to angle himself up. Half way there, he took a breath, and screamed out in pain. He flopped unceremoniously onto the floor, sweating, sitting there for a few second to regain his strength. Noticing he still had the IV in his arm, he gingerly pealed back the tape and pulled it out of his arm, putting pressure on the blood that seeped out. He escaped from the hospital many times in the past, so pulling out a few tubes and IVs were no big deal for him.

Looking around the room, he saw his clothes piled on the chair and his small handsewn hip bag on top. He hoped they didn't steal the money he had in his secret compartment, or else he would have to wait much longer for his ramen.

At the thought, his stomach growled, reminding him that the only thing he had in the past three days was a few handfuls of the slop at the restaurant. He knew they served food in the hospital, he used to see other people getting some, but they never gave him any before and he was always too scared to tell anyone that he wasn't eating, so he would have to find some.

Standing, he dropped the hospital gown he was wearing, and gingerly stepped over to his clothes. Rummaging through them, he sighed in frustration. They did steal his money. There was only a few copper mon in there, not even enough to buy a sack of rice from the store, at least on regular prices and not the over charged stuff he had to buy on the occasion they would let him in the store, and yet they took it from him. he was looking forward to eating ramen again with Ayame neesan and Teuchi jiisan again, but that wouldn't happen any time soon. Maybe next month, when he got enough money again.

Gingerly putting on his pants and tightening up his rope belt around his growling stomach, he pulled on his shirt gingerly and tucked the bottom into his pants after tying on his hip pouch. Thankfully, they didn't touch his book. Rummaging through the cabinets in his room, he found several sterile bandages and wraps that he shoved down the front of his shirt. Moving towards the sink, he turned on the faucet and drank heavily, allowing the water to slake his hunger for him and slowly made his way to the door.

He winced as the pain in his chest started up once again, but he ignored it. He had to get out of here before they could hurt him again. He peaked out of the small window in the middle of the door and took notice of his surroundings. There was the Inu masked ANBU, he was seated at the nurse's station. Apparently he was sleeping, because his mask was partially off and he was facing the complete other way, and pretty much everyone else was out of his line of sight. It would be the perfect time to make his escape.

Naruto made his way out of the door and kept his head down, running along the low wall of the nurse station. He already knew where the exit was, so he made a bee line there, ignoring the looks of surprise and the glowers he got from the patients who saw him. when he rounded the corner, he saw the lunch cart, and his empthy stomach rumbled once again.

He had to yank the rope a little tighter and make his way around the nurse, handing out the lunches. He would have loved to snag a sandwitch that he saw there, it looked so good, and he hadn't eaten much in three days, but he knew he would get caught if he tried it. Since he didn't want to hurt, he had to go hungry instead.

Making sure to stay out sight, he slipped around the cart and through the exit and into the hospital grounds. From there, it was a simple matter to make it past the guards, who were pretty much asleep as usual, and then, into a manhole where he could walk around without hiding.

It had been difficult to do, but he was able to get by without too much pain. Sighing, he walked through the dark underbelly of the city.

"I wonder if there's anything left in that trash can…?" he thought aloud to himself.

* * *

Kurenai made her way down the stairs to the first floor of Konoha General.

The floors were usually busy with medical personnel hurrying around the floor, or doctors yelling at nurses at their precieved inadequacy, only to have the same inadequacy shoved in front of their face from one of their superiors. Support staff milled around, talking in low voices and gossiping, whilling away the hours of their shift, barely attempting to keep out of sight. Here and there, a few people were doing their jobs correctly, but for the most part, they continued as they had before, uncaring that someone knew they were wasting time.

Her arms were laden with bandages and all sorts of antiseptic creams as she gingerly made her way from patient room to patient room. Unlike Ebisu and Aoba, who were assigned to help with the older patients, Kurenai was scooped up by several of the wound care nurses to assist in changing dressings. Of course, when they discovered that she was adept at such things from the academy, the nurse dumped her entire work load on her and retired to the sleep room, leaving her with numerous patients to care for and a twitch in her forehead after being chewed out by arrogant doctors who couldn't distinguish between a bandage and a casting.

She was already finished with thirty of the assigned rooms, changing the disgusting dressings that looked like they hadn't been changed for days, having met the nurse who was supposed to do the dressing changes that estimate was probably close. Finally, she had narrowed the list down to one last patient, patient number 224. She thought she recognized the number from something she heard that morning, but she was really much too worked to remember, so she dutifully continued on.

It was strange that someone with such serious wounds would be treated last. She asked the nurse when she reviewed the patient list and the woman simply shrugged her off without answering. The room she was supposed to go to was relatively normal, no warning signs or anything and the only shinobi she saw on the floor was the Inu masked ANBU sitting at the nurse station and reading an orange book. She shivered as the man let out a girlish giggle every once in a while.

Shrugging, she pushed the door open, only to find it empty. She put down her supplied and checked the room. The only thing she saw was several blood stained sheets, a bloody hospital gown, and a few binders that fell out of one of the cabinets. Examining the rest of the room, she noted that the supplies that were usually kept in the bottom cabinet were missing.

"That's strange…" she said to herself, and walked out of the room, "Maybe the nurse took the patient for some X-rays or something?"

Making her way to the nurse station, she checked the patient numbers and found the nurse that was assigned to the patient and went in search for her. Five minutes later, she found her and several other nurses in the break room. Not wishing to disturb, she simply waited outside for an opportunity to interrupt.

"…-and then he fell on his ass and slid down the roof top into the trash!" she laughed.

The other women laughed uproariously, chiding their co-worker.

"So," asked one of the women, "I heard you got the demon kid this rotation. How did it go?"

224's nurse cackled in a near baffoonish charicature of evil, "Well, I was just going to throw the little monster out of here, like the last time he came around looking to bother us with a cold, but that Inu masked ANBU was stationed there, so I couldn't do anything openly. So, just like every other time he's ended up here, I informed dietary and the other departments that he was here, and they took care of it like they always do."

One of the others laughed, "So, starved him out and had Yuki switch the acuity of his wounds, eh? That's so delicious! I hope the little monster starves or goes septic or something and dies in a gutter."

"Ooh!" shouted one, "I've got to tell you what happened last year when he was here. You remember when he came in with that thigh wound? You know, the one Shotaro was bragging about? Anyway, the little bastard was complaining that it was sore and wanted something for the pain. Guess what I did? I filled a syringe with ten CCs of ethyl alcohol laced with bleach, and I shoved it into the little bastard's other leg!"

The women laughed, and she continued, "That's not all! When he was crying after his leg swelled up, I told him, 'Your other leg dosen't hurt that much now does it?'"

They laughed again, cheering the other woman and praising her skill at torturing the boy. As they were laughing, Kurenai was spotted by Naruto's nurse and her evil smirk switched immediately to a kind look.

"Hello sweetie," she said, smiling at Kurenai, "How can I help you?"

Kurenai couldn't believe it. That woman, who had just been bragging about how she tortured one of her patients, did a complete one eighty and was now acting like nothing happened. How could they do that to a hurt little boy? She saw the breakdown of his chart, she knew what the boy had been through, and she knew who the kid was. No one called any other boy the demon child, so it had to be Naruto. Didn't these women have anything but stone in their hearts?

The burgening genjutsu mistress frowned inwardly but didn't let on that she heard.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but I was wondering if you could tell me where the patient in room," she pretended to look at her list, "Room 224 was. The Wound Care Nurse told me to change his dressings and he's not there."

The woman hid it well, but Kurenai could tell she was grinning like a loon on the inside, "Don't worry about that patient child," she said with a sweet smile, "He was checked out several hours ago and I suppose that Yuki forgot to tell you he wasn't here anymore. Why don't you take a break?"

Kurenai bowed to the woman after begging off and made her way down back to Naruto's room. When she entered, she came face to face with a frowning Kanga Shoto.

She was shocked, "Shoto-san?" came her quivering voice.

The man truned and frowned at her, "Hello Yuuhi-san. Did you see where Uzumaki Naruto was? I wanted to check up on him, but he's not here. Did they take him for a test or something?"

Kurenai bit her lip and looked over her shoulder, turning to close the door, "Shoto-san. I just heard something that I think you should hear."

Shoto frowned once again and nodded, "Alright. What is it?"

She told him what she was doing, from getting the patient assignment, to reading the charts, finding the room empty, and overhearing the women talking about torturing the boy out of the hospital.

"And you say that this has been going on for a long time?" Shoto asked, tightly controlled anger lacing his voice.

Kurenai nodded, "From what I overheard, it was at least a year ago that they started this. She also said that someone named Shotaro was the one that attacked him and wounded his leg," she frowned, "Why would they be doing that to him? What did he do that was so bad?"

Shoto ground his teeth together and mumbled, "Damn you Kakashi…you were supposed to be watching…" turning to Kurenai, he said, "continue on as before, but I'm altering your mission specs for a bit. See if you can get any other dirt on the hospital staff, but don't engage anything. Just listen, I don't want you to be too involved. Can you do that for me, Yuuhi-san?"

She nodded and the man quickly left the room.

Shoto was angry.

He stopped off at a few places to reinstate his identification and spoke with a few of his old shinobi and civilian friends, then came to the hospital to check on Naruto, only to find Kakashi reclining in a chair at the nurse's station and the boy's room completely empty. Then, the girl comes in and tells him what happened to the boy, and he discovers that the hospital staff, even after the incident last night, continued their delinquency in their duties, even going so far as to with hold medication, treatments, and food. FOOD for sweet Kami's sake! What the hell was going on in this damn village!?

His mind was a storm of anger and frustration as he walked out of the room. Several nurses saw him and scampered out of the way, spreading the word that the Red Beast of Konoha was in a dark mood. Walking over, he approached the Inu masked shinobi who he knew as one of the ANBU Captains Hatake Kakashi.

Despite the fact that he knew the man was a powerful shinobi as well as one of the students of the Fourth, Shoto never liked him. He first met Kakashi during their youth. The young man was an arrogant show off, aloof and cold to everyone, even to his poor mother, who passed away only a few years after his father killed himself. Though he changed somewhat after his team mate's deaths, the acquisition of the Sharingan eye seemed to carry with it the inherent arrogance and perceived superiority of the Uchiha. The man acted more the Uchiha than most Uchiha did, focusing his skills and power around the eye, though the one redeeming factor for the Copy-nin was that he never turned the eye on his fellow Konoha-nin, something everyone was grateful for. Shoto just hoped that Kakashi would never be taken down from the ANBU roster and given a team. He dreaded and wept for anyone under placed under the man.

When he approached, he asked the still unmoving ANBU, "Kakashi, I need to ask you a question in private."

The man turned up his one lazy eye and nodded. He recognized the Red Beast from his days as a genin. Shoto grinned discretely as the Copy-nin flexed the fingers of his left hand reflexively. Kakashi could count on a single hand, the number of people who defeated him in an all out battle, and Kanga Shoto, the Vengeful Red Beast of the Leaf, was the only one alive who could claim that kind of victory.

"Shoto-san…" came the lazy voice of the Copy-nin, "I see that you are back. Welcome home…" The copy of Icha Icha was put back into his hip pouch as he stood up, "What is it that I can do for you?"

He followed him into Naruto's room and Shoto asked, "I wish to know why you didn't see fit to stop the boy from leaving, nor did you watch for his wellbeing."

Kakashi gave him the same lazy look, "I do not know what you are talking about Shoto-san. I did my job, and it was to safeguard the boy while in the hospital."

Shoto frowned, "So you let the kid stay in here, while you knew it was the prerogative of the hospital staff to starve him, refuse him medication, and actively push him to leaving?"

Kakashi just shrugged.

"Are you aware that on a previous visit, the boy had a syringe full of bleach injected into his leg just for complaining about pain?" he asked.

The other man shrugged again, "But nothing of the sort happened this time around did it? And as for the hospital staff, it is not my duty to see that they are doing their job. I am only here to prevent assassination by outside forces and to prevent him from getting hurt, not to see that they baby the boy. You of all people should know that."

Shoto shook his head and pushed by him, "I'm disappointed to see that the only surviving student of the Yondaime is such an apathetic incompetent. Your sensei would be rolling in his grave after the way you treat his legacy," Kakashi's one eye narrowed in anger, "The only thing Namikaze Minato asked on his death bed was that the boy be treated as a hero for protecting the village from the demon. Yet the civilians and the fools on the Village council treat him like filth. You, the student of the Fourth, know that he is not what they claim him to be, yet you still treat him as dirt, disrespectful of your sensei's final wish. You disgust me."

By this time, the usually lazy man was steamed, "How dare you lecture me about honor and duty. You, who ran away after his sensei was killed!" Shoto narrowed his eyes, "You have no right to lecture me about legacies, Kanga, no right at all. I was doing my job, protecting the kid from harm, and that was all I was required to do. Do not bring my sensei into this again."

The taijutsu expert scoffed, "A disgrace is all you are. Thank kami your old team mates the Uchiha and the Inuzuka aren't here to see you fuck up so badly. I'd spit on you, but you're not worth the effort to hack one up," he said, and brushed past the man, knocking his shoulder before walking out.

Exiting the hospital, he quickly made his way over to the Hokage's office, interrupting a meeting with a few chuunin to make his report. After they were dismissed, Sarutobi frowned.

"This is not the first time he has left early…" he said to himself, "But now we now know why he did…"

Shoto nodded, "I've read the reports, Hokage-sama. The others wounds I'm sure he could live with, but this one will be hard to keep clean as well as prevent further damage to his lungs. I suggest that we fan out and find the boy, bring him back to a private room and have the shinobi healers administer his care this time. It's the only way we can ensure his cooperation."

Sarutobi began to nod his assent, but stopped midway. Shaking his head, he sighed heavily, "You know I can't do that Shoto. The boy is not a shinobi, thus, he must be treated by civilians. Any shinobi healer I utilize will report back to the council on my actions. It's out of my hands at the moment Shoto. The only thing we can do is hope Naruto will pull through this."

The younger man didn't like that idea at all. Just sitting round and hoping everything would be alright!? Divine providence was not what he wanted to put his trust into, but how could he help the boy without the council knowing? He knew he already had tails on him, especially after he killed that civie doctor, and he couldn't get rid of him until he was a full shinobi, or he would be executed for murdering Konoha military personnel.

Then, it clicked, "What if we don't use a medic-nin, Hokage-sama. There are others who specialize in healing that do not belong to those ranks," he said.

Sarutobi frowned, then smiled as the realization hit him, "I see where you're going. I shall visit them tonight…but the problem will be tracking him. Naruto is adept at staying hidden. We really don't know how he does it, but he had vanished during several chases, even against the occasional jonin, and we have no idea where he goes. Only rarely is he caught, and he is smart enough to know not to expose himself where someone might be able to attack him."

Shoto frowned, "Then how is it that he was caught?"  
The old man seemed reticent when Shoto asked the question. He spent a few long seconds sucking morosely on the extinguished pipe between his lips before answering, "No one will sell Naruto anything, and that includes food. He doesn't trust anyone who offers him food thanks to a woman who tried to poison him about two years ago, and the only people who are kind to him, who actually would help him, are too poor to do so. Naruto is a considerate boy and he understand their situation, so he only eats there when he can pay, thus, there is nowhere he can get food…You can put the rest together from there, Shoto."

Shoto's eyes narrowed angrily, "Do you mean, Naruto was in that alley…trying to get something to eat…from a trash bin?"

The Sandaime refused to answer and simply said, "I will take care of it this evening Shoto."

Grinding his teeth, the younger man bowed, "Don't bother Hokage-sama, it seems that the boy, like all the other trash on the streets, is beyond your care," that made the old man flinch, "I will take care of it. Yohei still owes me a favor."

Half an hour later, he found himself outside of the large Inuzuka compound. The Inuzukas were a clan known widely for their tracking skills and their coordinated attacks with their Ninken, those giant dogs and wolves that the Inuzuka could communicate with. He thought that strange bond had something to do with a jutsu, but as of yet, that was an Inuzuka secret that was yet to be cracked.

Walking through the wide gates, he was stopped by a huge black wolf, its eye missing and covered by a patch. Strangely enough, it actually talked to him.

"So…You have returned Kanga Shoto…" said the beast in a gravelly voice, "To what does the Inuzuka clan owe for a visit from the Vengeful Beast of Konoha?"

Shoto smiled, "Hello again, Kuromaru…" he said, bowing to the old wolf, "How is Tsume doing? Still popping out the pups? Or is she done being mounted by Keigo…"

The old wolf growled in irritation, "You speak of old relations, Beast," he said, "Keigo passed on last year."

That surprised the Taijutsu master. Inuzuka Keigo was a powerful shinobi of the clan, and someone not taken lightly. They'd also been friends from before, at least until he discovered Shoto was sleeping with Tsume behind his back. That quickly ended that relationship, but still, to know that he was dead still made his regret the hurtful things he had said to the man in his youth.

"How did it happen?" he asked.

Kuromaru replied, "Kumo-nin. During an A-class along the border. He was careless and was caught in the back by a jutsu."

Shoto nodded, "How's Tsume taking it?"

The old wolf shrugged, "Well. Keigo was not her first choice, Beast. It was an arranged marriage, you know this, though he left behind a daughter and a son."

"I see," Shoto said.

Kuromaru turned around, "Come. We will speak of this when Tsume has cleared your presence here."

The two walked through the halls of the Inuzuka compound. They passed several homes, each with a large kennel in the back that housed the ninken of the clan. Several people recognized him and waved, mostly the younger generations that were his friends, but many of the older scowled at him as his reputation with the clan was not very positive after the events that led to his estrangement from Keigo. Through the main thoroughfare they made their way, stopping once in a while to greet people, but finally they made their way to the main branch's homes.

The home of the clan leader was large, sprawling at about a quarter of the compound. Training grounds of plain and forest could be seen at the back of the property with the large complex that made up the living quarters as well as the council chambers of the clan. Attached, was a large kennel as well as a veterinary clinic.

Kuromaru took them through the main doors, guarded by several large dogs and led him to a sitting room, while he got Tsume.

Several minutes later, he heard the shoji slam open and she walked in.

Shoto turned and grinned. Inuzuka Tsume was a unique woman, though not your typical beauty, what attracted Shoto to her was rather her spirit. Taller than normal kunoichi and with a build more like a young man than a fully developed woman, she was considered the premier of the family. Her skills in the arts of Taijutsu and her synchronization with her Ninken Kuromaru were the standard that all other Inuzuka were held to. She was vicious in battle, savoring the blood of her enemies, yet she was a stalwart protector and a good friend. Shoto always treasured his friendship with Tsume, and when they became something more, he never forgot her moments of insecurity and openness, so alien in her vicious features.

He smiled and stood as Tsume greeted him with a hug.

"It's good to see you again Shoto," she said with a smile, "You have been away from the village for way too long," giving him a feral grin, "I hope you're still in shape, or else I'll have to get my claws in you and beat you till you can keep up with us."

Shoto laughed as they sat down, "Still the same old Tsume. How are you? I heard you had another kid?"

Tsume grinned, "Yeah. Hana was more than a handful for me and I was satisfied, but Keigo wanted a son to succeed him, so we had Kiba. The kid's strong though, he'll be a good heir, though if he inherited his father's temperament, I think we might be looking for another heir sooner than I'd like…" she grimaced.

Shoto nodded, knowing how much of a hot head his former friend used to be, "I'm sure he'll be fine Tsume. How's little Hana? She was only one the last time I saw her."

"She's growing like a weed. That child took after her father in looks, but her personality is more like mine than I'd like. She's apprenticed to Yohei. I think she's going to be a vet rather than a shinobi like the rest of the family, though that could go either way," Tsume replied.

Shoto nodded, "How is Yohei anyway?"

Tsume gave him a critical eye, "Yohei huh? You haven't been picking up any Ninken that I wasn't aware of have you?"

Shoto chuckled, "I could never get past anything by you could I Tsume?"

She laughed, "Never could, never will. So what do you need a vet for?"

He started, "You know about the attack last night right?"

"Tch," she scoffed, "Who wouldn't. That place was so filled with blood, that every ninken we had was going nuts. The kid's blood has traces of the fox's charka, and it agitates them. Caught your scent there as well. Was wondering when you would find your way over."

He shrugged, "Yeah. I found the kid myself. Some chunin went nuts and tried to rip his lung out with a kunai. When I went to the hospital to check on him this morning, I found the kid missing. One of the genin working there for a D-rank overheard what they did to him in the past. Pretty much starving him, refusing meds and medical treatment, and falling to physical torture. Even injected his thigh with bleach once."

Tsume scowled, "Fucking Civies. Don't know what the fuck they're bitching about, yet they go and do something like that."

Shoto shook his head, "Nah, it was a Chunin. Name was Daichi…something or other."

Tsume frowned, "I think I know the kid. Lost parents to the Kyuubi right? The boy was mentally unstable…teammate got killed on a solo mission a week before…not the sharpest kunai in the pack though. I assume Ibiki had his claws in him?"

The Taijutsu master nodded, "Spilled his guts. Haven't heard back, but the ANBU are dealing with the plot. Don't know how high it goes since it seemed like they were able to divert surveillance from a heavy commercial district, but we'll see. So when did you start caring for the kid?"

She scoffed, "Me? Care for the Kyuubi gaki!? Get real, Shoto. Remember, I was one of the council who pushed for executing the kid. I've since rescinded my argument after the…incident…" she shook at the thought of having all her chakra coils sealed, "But I still don't give a lick about the gaki."

Shoto rolled his eyes, "So what. Doing this as a favor?"

She laughed and licked her lips, "Nah, for payment," she stood and reached over, running a finger up his chin, and over his lips, "I expect to enjoy my payment…in full Shoto. My bank has not had any deposits for quite some time…and I will be needing it filled."

The Red Beast grinned, knowing that he would have a good time tonight.

"I'll be over later, Tsume," he said over his shoulder as he left the room.

* * *

His breathing came in short pants, each shooting pain through his chest like a thousand red hot knives.

It was Naruto's routine that he would come to one of the practice fields to work on his shinobi skills. Of course it was tough after he got out of the hospital. After finding his way around the sewers, he went back to the restaurant in hopes that his meal would still be there. Of course it wasn't, someone had emptied the cans and his meal was gone, so he had to find another source to eat. He'd learned early on that wounds healed quicker when you had food, so he had to find somewhere he could get some. He ended up finding a treasure-trove of edibles when he stumbled across a drunken stand owner, who just so happened to have a bin full of rice that was positioned right next to a one of the hidden old manholes he used directly in a shadowed corner of the near empty store.

It was always a taboo for him. Never did he try to break the laws that people accused him of breaking. He thought that even if they accused him of it, at least he would know that he was innocent in the end and that they were wrong. But then again, since only he was there and no one else even realized that he wasn't taking anything, maybe that taboo wasn't such a good idea after all.

Naruto ended up relieving the man of a bushel of rice and a large portion of salt cured pork. He wouldn't have to worry about finding food for several months with the amount he'd been able to 'find'. Naruto ended up taking the ill begotten goods to his secret village hide out.

He figured it was some kind of maintenance room for these tunnels, since the only access to the strange hide out he could see was from the pipe system underneath their feet. The room was small, only a few paces on each side, but more than enough for him. It was his super secret hideout, the most secured area he could find, and that was the reason why he never used it all that much. Because it was so protected, he didn't want people finding him there, just to throw him out or destroy his home, so he stayed away as much as possible, only entering when he was in dire need of shelter. Which, having bleeding gashes in his chest and arms could be considered a dire need.

He ate well for the first time in a very long while. With his stomach full, and for once not full of bacteria and filth, he decided to visit the training grounds to see if he could reacquire some old rusted kunai. Of course they were usually damaged somehow, either bent, snapped, or rusted till they were crumbly, but that didn't matter. Without the training weapons the old man had given him, he needed to find something to practice with, and those would do until he discovered a way to get descent ones.

He started off as he always did, doing some exercises that the old man told him to do. Just a few things to help with his strength, but he found that when he actually did them this time, his wounds would open up again, and he would have to wait. He tried running, but that made him even worse. He tried to do his taijutsu, but that was nearly impossible to do since, one, he had no idea how to do the forms he saw the ninja doing, and two, he couldn't even move his arms too much.

Lastly, he tried to do some target practicing with the rusted kunai he found. Sadly, he wasn't able to replace everything, he only found a very badly rusted kunai, and one very bent iron piece that looked like it used to be a kunai. He picked it up anyway, thinking that maybe he could learn how to fix it or something. He had watched the blacksmiths in the past, well, before they discovered him watching and tried to smash his head with a hammer, and he saw them repair their tools. He was certain that he could probably figure it out himself through his usual method of try until I get it right.

Normally that wouldn't have caused him pain, but he wanted to try out a new way of throwing them he overheard one of the gennin teams being taught by their sensei with. When the old man taught him, he had told him to "gauge the distance, hold it between your palm and your thumb, and just push it forward, releasing it as it flew out." Naruto knew this method, one usually suited to using bo-shuriken, and he could hit the bull's eye with this method, but he was unable to penetrate the wood for some reason. He had no idea why since he saw other kids able to do it, even those his age he occasionally saw could drive it in that way, but he was unable to. So he tried to find yet another way of doing it, and the Jonin sensei's way seemed to be the right one.

In this new method, one gauged the distance and used an over hand throw to spin the Kunai, as if throwing a normal shuriken. The difference in this one was that you put more strength into it, but you also had to stretch more and snap your wrist better. And that was his big mistake. So focused was he at trying to make the kunai stick into the wood, that he didn't pay attention to the amount of stress he was putting on his chest and half an hour into the exercises, he could feel something tear inside and he nearly fainted from the pain.

That as how he found himself, leaning against a tree, panting and wincing in pain, but a self satisfied smile on his face. The Kunai. It was directly in the center of the bull's eye, driven an inch into the wood. He was satisfied.

But still, he felt he was going to die with the amount of pain he had.

Suddenly, in the fog of pain, his vision blurry and his conscious flaring in and out of existence, he heard a voice.

"Sweet Kami, what have you done to this child…" came a gentle masculine voice. He felt hands on him and he panicked, trying to push the hands away.

They were large and rough, gripping his wrists as the strong, gentle voice said, "Don't worry child, I'm not here to hurt you. I need to look at your wound to see if you're alright."

He still fought the man. Naruto learned that people often tried to trick you, being kind to you in order to gain trust, and then they turned around and tried to hurt you. He wasn't about to let this man hurt him like they did at the orphanage.

"N-No…" he struggled, "Le-_cough_-_cough_-Leave me…alone…" he wheezed out. The taste of blood filed his mouth and nostrils as he coughed.

The man swore, "Damnit! Something must have opened up. Shoto didn't say how thorough it was…" he could tell the man was getting irritated. Finally, he seemed fed up, "I'm sorry child, but I'm going to have to restrain you." The hands left him and he heard the man whisper, "Doton: Tsuchi no te!"

Immediately, something hard and cold restrained him, making him unable to move.

Naruto whimpered, "Please…Ple-_cough_-_cough_-please don't…don't hurt me…"

The man patted his head, "Don't worry child I won't hurt you. I'm trying to fix your lungs, so stay put and be a good boy for a little bit."

Naruto knew that he was at the man's mercy and he was going to hurt, so he resigned himself to it. And let himself drift. The man poked and prodded him, yet he was surprised that he wasn't hurting him yet. About five minutes later, Naruto heard gravel crunching.

"Yohei-Niisan!" came a high pitched female voice, "Nee, Yohei-Niisan! Where are you!"

The man, Yohei, Naruto figured, called out, "I'm here Hana!" When the girl came closer, Yohei said, "And keep it down. You don't want to bring shinobi here do you?"

He couldn't make out the girl, only a blur.

"Eeeww," the girl said, "What happened to him? His clothes are so ugly, they look like scraps sewn together! And he smells like Kiba when he had an accident! What's wrong with that boy, Yohei-Niisan?"

Naruto was too tired to care about what the girl was saying about him. His body was becoming colder by the second and it was getting harder to breath.

"Shhh," said Yohei, "Don't judge him, child, you have no right."

The girl complained, "But he's all stinky and everything! Doesn't his mom and dad clean his clothes or something? Or force him to take a bath?"

Yohei sighed, "He doesn't have parents, Hana, not like you do. He doesn't have people to tell him to take a bath, to help him change his clothes, to see that he has meals, or teaches him how to read and write, like your mom does."

Hana asked, "Why doesn't he get a mom then?"

The man sighed again, "It's not that simple Hana. No one cared enough about the boy to adopt him, so he doesn't have a mom or a dad."

She asked again, "Why doesn't anyone want him? Is he a bad boy or something?"

Naruto could see Yohei shaking his head, "No, Hana. He's not a bad boy, he's a good child, whose just misunderstood by a vast many people and mistreated because of that misunderstanding."  
"What do you mean?" Hana asked.

Yohei replied, "Do you remember when you thought Kuromaru took your doll, and you started yelling at him, even though he didn't take it?"

She replied, "Yeah…mom really yelled at me for that…"

"It's the same thing. People think Naruto is something he's not and blame him for something he didn't do, even though it's plain to see that he's not what they accuse him of being. And because of that misunderstanding, he suffers for their stupidity."

Hana commented, "That's stupid…why doesn't he just tell them that he's not whatever they call him?"

Yohei replied, "Did you believe Kuromaru when he said he didn't take your doll?"

The girl was silent, understanding the concept.

A few minutes later, Yohei said, "Alright Naruto, I'm going to heal you. It might feel a little tight in your chest for a while, but you need to hang tight, alright?"

Naruto didn't respond, just lolled his head, slipping into a state of semi-consciousness. Then there was a tightening sensation over the place that was hurting when he breathed. It spread over the area along with warmth and a numbing sensation, soothing the pain that knifed through him with every breath. Five minutes later, the sensation slowly moved back and left his body, allowing him to breathe normally. He was still very weak and he was slipping into unconsciousness as the man released the thing holding him.

"Alright Naruto, I've healed you, but you need to take it easy. You've received nearly ten times the amount of chakra healing that normal people receive and you need to eat something when you wake up. Here," he said, tucking something into his pouch, "Eat that when you wake up. It has a lot of calories and it should hold you over for a while. I'll be back once in a while to check on you so keep safe and don't overtax yourself."

Yohei stood, "Come Hana," he said as they turned.

"What about him, Yohei-Niisan?" she asked, "Isn't he going home?"

The man replied, "He doesn't have a home like you do Hana."

"But where does he sleep?" she asked in a shocked voice.

Yohei sighed heavily, but said nothing, just shrugged, "Let's go."

Before they could take off, Naruto opened his eyes a crack and addressed the taller blur, "Th-thank-thank you…Yohei-san…"

The man nodded and they disappeared just as Naruto slipped into blissful unconsciousness.


End file.
